Cold Hard Cash to use our Search Engine!

Good old Microsoft, always the bridesmaid never the bride in the field of innovation have taken to extraordinary measures to pull some business from online advertising giant, Google. With the recent bid to take over Yahoo resulting in failure, the usual tactic of embrace, extend and extinguish which Microsoft has enjoyed much success with in previous years proves not to be paying off this time round.This has caused the OS giant to resort to offering cash discounts to US shoppers making purchases after coming into sites through a Live search advert. This initiative offers partial refunds on purchases through a new “cashback” system where money is deposited directly into customer’s bank accounts or optionally through their PayPal accounts.

Big hitters who have agreed to adopt the cashback scheme are book retailers Barnes & Noble, home improvement and construction products retailer Home Depot and online clearance warehouse Overstock.com amongst others.

Speaking from the annual digital ad conference in Redmond, Bill Gates said “2008 is the year that search got competitive,” along with promises of “big announcements around search to happen every six months” from the Microsoft camp.