Microsoft Is Paying Brazilian Users In Skype Credit To Switch to Bing 90
New submitter perplexing.reader (2241844) writes "Microsoft is paying Brazilian users US$2 in Skype vouchers to set Bing as their default search engine and MSN as their default home page. Translated from the site: 'Make MSN your homepage and Bing your default search engine and earn up to 60 minutes of calls to mobiles and landlines in Skype.' ... The Rules: 'After receiving the voucher, this should be used until July 31, 2014. Once on Skype, the credits do not expire. The minutes are based on a rate of $ 0.023 per minute, but the number of minutes may vary depending on the destination of the call and the number of calls you make. The current value of the voucher is $2.00. [One claimed], the voucher will appear in your Skype account." (For those outside Brazil, the page brings up a message that translates to "Sorry, this promotion is not
available for your country.")
So... (Score:5, Informative)
... you set your default to Bing, use your Skype vouchers, then set your default back again?
Re:So... (Score:5, Informative)
I got a better idea, set it as default on IE and just keep trucking with the other browser...
only way they would know would be for them to do something(too specific surveillance) to sue them up....
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That's what I thought too, but you have to download a tool that changes your home page and search engine in IE, Chrome, and Firefox simultaneously. Now I'm not sure if I want to let it screw with my Chrome and Firefox settings...
Re:So... (Score:5, Informative)
Are you kidding?
Every time I've ever used Bing to find something, unless it's quite literally things like the frontpage of some project that I search the name of, I can never find it. I can even narrow it down, deliberately AIMING for the page that I know exists and the keywords on that page, and exact phrases that appear there.
On Google, bang, first hits. On Bing, you can scroll pages and anything you hit that's relevant appears to be mostly by accident.
Honestly, the most popular search on Bing must be "google.com" or "Firefox" (when people first set up their IE-only computers with Bing as default).
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Are you kidding?
Every time I've ever used Bing to find something, unless it's quite literally things like the frontpage of some project that I search the name of, I can never find it.
It happens sometimes but Bing has improved a lot lately. The "search within" feature is interesting. Try to search for Slashdot on both engines you will see the difference.
Also Bing maps is immensely superior for proximity search, and with the business name / location split it's more convenient than Google maps, especially when the business name contains a different city name (like Chicago Joe's).
Google is hell-bent on making a magic textbox that "does everything" but that forces people to use additional ke
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Thanks. Your attempt at astroturfing is the best laugh I've had today.
Using "astroturfing" in this context is not only a weak insult, it is also a contribution to the bastardization of the word, which is unfortunate because like parents who claim that their kid is a victim of cyber-bullying because nobody "Liked" a link he posted on Facebook you are making it a little more difficult to discuss actual occurrences of an undesirable behavior.
When you think that a person has a bias regarding a specific technology or company, please use the proper term, such as "fanboi" or "mvp".
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Google is hell-bent on making a magic textbox that "does everything" but that forces people to use additional keywords like "near" or "loc", which basically transforms the "single textbox" in a poorly implemented command-line. This is bad UX, plain and simple.
You're arguing that the command line is a bad UI? On slashdot? Well, I suppose you did say it's a "poorly implemented" command line, though not what's poor about it. I have my complaints about what Google has been doing to the search engine over the last few years, but they're about removing command line-ish features, not adding them.
I will grant that the bing "search within" box is a little friendlier than "site:slashdot.org". I prefer the latter because it's quicker, and because it fits the normal work
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Google is hell-bent on making a magic textbox that "does everything" but that forces people to use additional keywords like "near" or "loc", which basically transforms the "single textbox" in a poorly implemented command-line. This is bad UX, plain and simple.
You're arguing that the command line is a bad UI? On slashdot?
No, I'm saying that the Google search box is a bad UI. That's not the same thing.
To get that single textbox you force people to filter their query with keywords that have nothing to do with the topic they are interested into: "loc", "site", "near", etc. That's the equivalent of putting a single buzzer on a multi-tenant building and forcing visitors to buzz multiple times following an arbitrary pattern to reach a specific tenant because the architect believe a single buzzer is prettier.
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All command lines include multiple components, including directives as well as key values. The only other option is to have a mixed UI, where some elements are entered on the command line and others are added via some other interface.
That's how command lines work, and it's both effective and usable.
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What's wrong with keywords ? For me it works very well, while Bing seems like a modern incarnation of Altavista.
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Bing seems like a modern incarnation of Altavista
Altavista is now powered by Bing so the loop is complete!
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The most popular search is indeed "google". By a lot
Cite?
I found an article from July 2012 that said the top three search terms were "google", "goggle", and "googlle", but Bing's more recent press releases seem all to have just listed top queries by category (e.g. top queries for athletes, etc.), without providing any information about overall top search queries.
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Re: So... (Score:2)
Stay classy Anon.
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Try to search for "opensuse" in both Bing and Google.
Question: how many _websites_ you see in results on the first page? Count them.
If you can't persuade, bribe. (Score:5, Insightful)
This is how elections are won, too.
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read elections as electrons, and briefly had a mental image of me giving my best gal a pile of electrons after performing a feat of strength at a fun fair.
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That's just plain rude.
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You mean like when I download Firefox, Google is the default search engine, and mysteriously Google also ends up paying tens of millions of dollars per year to the Mozilla foundation?
Or when I download [insert half a thousand products here] and there is a default-selected option somewhere along the install wizard to download Chrome? which is why whenever I look at someone's PC, I notice they have Chrome installed, and I ask them, "Do you want that?" and they say, "Oh, I didn't put that there,.. I don't use
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Do you not see the difference between bundling a product with a different product and promising monetary rewards in exchange for a user using a product? Because that is what is being compared here.
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It's entirely possible that Skype money is of value to people in Brazil who quite likely use Skype a lot. In 2005, for example, Brazil was actually the country with the greatest number of Skype users. If that's still the case, then it's probably quite a good bribe to them.
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Not that it affects me (since I am in USA, use Linux, and would never use Bing) but I would love to know:
1) How MS knows you actually switched anything in your browser, unless they built in spyware to watch what you are doing.
2) If this applies to browsers other than IE.
3) If it applies to platforms other than MS-Windows.
4) As others said, what prevents you from immediately just switching back?
5) Are they really THAT desperate to have people use their search engine/home page?? (Although I guess it really i
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Could it just be a cheap way to ferret out unlicensed copies of Windows...?
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In a Linux computer the button continues there, but there is a warning bellow it telling that the campaign only applies to Windows computers. When I click the button, it tries to download .exe file, Igot tempted to run it on Wine and see what it does, but setting a VM and etc is too much work :)
There is probably something in the .exe to tell them if you switch back. But I doubt they reclaim the credit, as that would break consumer laws.
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Thanks for the info
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Or, you know... (Score:1)
Just subscribe to any VOIP service, will be far cheaper.
Oh sweet sweet revenge! (Score:5, Funny)
After years of "this [game/service/promotion] is not available for your country" trying to listen to Pandora, to watch Hulu and to download some Xbox Live games, now it's my turn to be delighted seeing this crushing bitterness bite your souls, dear Americans! Who needs Full HD videos and customised Internet Radio when I can call my grandma for FREE? I love you Bing!
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If your grandma lives in the USA, you could use screen sharing to watch Hulu during those 2 free hours per month. Or you could ask her to point her webcam towards the tv screen and watch high-quality American tv (like Keeping Up With the Kardashians) live, as long as she does not change the channel.
For some reason you don't want her to know what you are watching? No problem, here is what you could do
1) ask her to setup Dial-Up networking on her Windows XP machine
2) use dial-up over Skype to access her inte
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Since when does Skype's voice codec pass phone modem signals? And since when can one do anything that is both useful and geoblocked at phone modem data rates?
But seriously, let me boil your post down into something similar that will actually work: Have your grandma install a VPN app.
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since when can one do anything that is both useful and geoblocked at phone modem data rates?
1973
smart (Score:1)
(eom)
Not just Brazil (Score:5, Interesting)
Nothing is Free.... (Score:2)
It's a rather sad and pathetic move...
Sure, whatever you say.
But providing incentives to use a particular product is neither new nor exclusive to Microsoft. If you don't think Google, Apple, and every single other major company, within or outside the USA doesn't do this, you are deluding yourself with Microsoft Hate Group Think.
Seriously, you think "free" services on Google are really "free"?
Do you use *ANY* service or product that is ostensibly "free", but provided by a company that is not non-profit? That you are being paid to use it. Perhaps
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Then there is the Surface business plan: Sell below cost but make it up in volume.
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I do understand Microsoft, however. Once a company is seen as the #1 in something, it's very hard to tell people to try other options.
I am, however, delighted by the irony.
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I remember when Google was starting out in 98 or so. They were paying people to use their search engine too. I made a small amount of money using them instead of Yahoo, Alta Vista, or Lycos. Substandard has little to do with it. It's hard to make people switch out of what they're used to.
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I switched for the cash [bing.com]. I don't consider it pathetic at all. The quality of the web results are on par with Google. Image results seem to be slightly behind, but for the $8/month I make, to me it was clearly worth it.
Did you ever notice... (Score:4, Funny)
No way! (Score:3)
That's a lot of money!!! (Score:2)
Wait, how many is a brazilian again?
One brazillion (Score:2)
Seems like a desperate move. (Score:2)
This seems to me like a desperate move to suck people into their net.
Both Bing and MSN sucks so badly that I get a rash from it. To me Bing is the brand of a carburetor (often on mopeds and other small engines), but it is also locally a defamatory statement.
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To me, Bing always reminds me of Ned Ryerson.
That much? (Score:1)
Gmail (Score:1)