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"How can we increase our market share ? Search me", says Ballmer.

Microsloth can take thier friggin' adverts, and their filthy, ill-gotten lucre, and stick em where the sun doesn't shine.

Idiots couldn't innovate their way out of a wet paper bag.

<< Microsoft is experimenting with integrating ads and games, so users don't view them as nuisances." >>

What about using Vista. That's nuisance redefined.

As far as the cashback on purchased made from vendors found using liveSearch- From a business perspective- might not be a such a bad idea. Of course, there's gotta be more to it then this. Do you have to search using internet explorer, do you have to be running the search query from a vista machine. Do u have to be a Zune owner. Are u disqualified if u ever walking inside an Apple store. Details to follow.

May 21, 08 - 01:57 pm Comment from: JAYGEE

Just a way for them to waste more money. They can't have much left, can they?

I forgot...

This 'offer' is good-
"Except in Nebraska"

May 21, 08 - 01:58 pm Comment from: HMCIV

Thank goodness Microsoft never uses cash bribes on the government. That could be...

...ooooh. I suddenly feel very compromised.

maybe monkey boy should pay people to use Vista !!

May 21, 08 - 02:06 pm Comment from: macoverdose_dot_com

bribes... advertising on zunes.. and copyright cop embedded in anything with a M$ logo on it..... lol they are amazing. Obviously prolonged exposure to vista has serious implications on the ability to make good decisions

"…Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, said the number of cell phones that can receive rich media ads is going to triple in the next couple of years. 'We think mobile is a tremendous opportunity going forward,' Bach said.""
Right - Apple's iPhones will quadruple!*
- Doga Doga
* or more!

I love Steve's androgynous swivel money-hand. It makes him look even more waxily lifeless.

With much Photoshop comes much responsibility.

Ok, this is a very misleading title. You are not "paid to search" per say, you are paid cash back to buy things, like any number of sites are doing (for example fatwallet, and even upromise). Now, this LIVE cashback program is actually an off-shoot of a site that M$ bought last year called Jellyfish.com, of which I am an active participant username ajdowntown).

Look, I love bashing M$ as much as the next guy, but there is some serious misleading going on in this article.

Can someone use a "blur" filter on that pic of Ballmer. Those crevices and canyons on his face are just a little too hyperrealistic.

Nice photo. Egg-ducker has womanish hands?

Here is a better article from Information Week that gives a better idea of what is going on:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/search/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207801588

May 21, 08 - 02:18 pm Comment from: Zune Tang®

Sorry, Google & Yahoo. There's a new sheriff in town. The internet now belongs to Microsoft and I, along with my 97.5% market share friends are grateful.

Just when I thought the Microsoft experience couldn't get any better the geniuses in Redmond come up with this. You mean I get paid to use magnificent Microsoft technology? Sign me up!

Your potential. Our passion.™

Someone went to all the trouble to Photoshop that together and didn't do a simple flip horizontal on the hand with the money in it.

My second positive statement about Baldy...he could get a Palmolive endorsement.

May 21, 08 - 02:23 pm Comment from: Macintosh

Wow, they just do everything wrong. I wish someone would sneak a video of a meeting where they brainstorm this kind of stuff.

May 21, 08 - 02:24 pm Comment from: shen

tell ya want MS, if you buy me a MBA i will promise to *always* use your search on it, k?

after reading the article I am scared. MSF wants to send ads to your mobile phone.

great i get charged per txt message. if i start getting ads via text messages I will sue the senders. You can't charge me for advertising.

May 21, 08 - 02:27 pm Comment from: Not Bill

Such innovation!

May 21, 08 - 02:31 pm Comment from: Dave H

Yuk. Anyone else feel they suddenly need a shower?

May 21, 08 - 02:33 pm Comment from: boyweho

Instead of cash, maybe MS should give people Zune Points! Woo-hoo!

May 21, 08 - 02:47 pm Comment from: Harvey

Now here is something to contemplate: Apple can get people to pay $99 for a service that is elsewhere free (dot Mac), while Microsoft has to bribe people to use a free service. Hm. Steve Jobs would protest that he's not a salesman, but he's a better one than Steve Ballmer.

May 21, 08 - 02:49 pm Comment from: Harvey

Wait a minute! I just realized--Microsoft is a great innovator, after all!

...of ways to make things more annoying than ever.

If I start getting MS ads on my iPhone, I'll drive to Redmond and shove a Dell up Ballmer's a**!

I thought we enjoyed crying about MS...hope I live to see the day when that company really has a melt down.

May 21, 08 - 02:53 pm Comment from: Ampar

"I'll drive to Redmond and shove a Dell up Ballmer's a**!"

I hope you're quick on your feet. I've seen him dive behind a desk.

I wish that MS would quit trying compete in every segment (gaming, search, music players...) and focus on their core business - OS and productivity software. Maybe then they could produce something that was worth upgrading to for their customers.

May 21, 08 - 03:03 pm Comment from: Ouate de Phoque

with this news, AAPL is down nearly 5%

I can't stand Microsoft as much as the next Mac user, but I have to tell you that I looked at the cash back program, and it's pretty sweet. And I don't mind TAKING money from Microsoft. They even have 5% cash back on the iphone. When the 3G comes out, I'm going to use Live Search to save some money.

Also, it does work with Firefox. I don't know about Safari, though.

on the money!!!

May 21, 08 - 05:22 pm Comment from: Mr. Peabody

Oh this is perfect! MS is very wealthy, but no bank account is bottomless. I say let them keep on buying up their competition, and let them keep on paying people to use their stuff - until they just plain run outta $$$. Maybe that's what's really going on. They realize their riding a non-replayable wave and their going all in. Could we be so lucky?

Probably not, but only for one single reason - the installed user base - that's always their fallback. If MS went under tomorrow I wonder how many decades they could keep going just providing support and nothing else. Yikes. They really are a deeply rooted virus.

"Oh this is perfect! MS is very wealthy, but no bank account is bottomless"

Actually read for a second about how this works. This is no simple incentive payment to use the service.

The cash to do this comes from the advertisers. For the advertiser it's a no-brainer, no sale, no ad payment. For Microsoft likewise, no purchase, no payout.

It's actually a new, more attractive business model for online ads, with an incentive to pull the customers in. Why wouldn't a vendor try it? If it doesn't work, you lose nothing.

" I don't mind TAKING money from Microsoft. They even have 5% cash back on the iphone. "

The money comes from - you guessed it - Apple or whoever sells the phone. Good luck thinking you're hurting Microsoft by doing this. Microsoft is just waiting for you to take "their" "free" money.

...And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

May 21, 08 - 06:19 pm Comment from: Macromancer

"with this news, AAPL is down nearly 5%"

You actually think THIS had something to do with AAPL's drop today?
L.O.L.

"You actually think THIS had something to do with AAPL's drop today"

And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

May 21, 08 - 06:57 pm Comment from: Petey

'Ingame advertising'...

Now expect the next Halo game heros to have coca cola stickers all over their armour.

Jesus - boy are Microsoft desperate.

They are a sinking ship with no port to go to, its just a matter of time before they are gonna sink.

Its only a matter of time and where and when.

IMO veryone should sign up and take FULL advantage of this service!

Then when the money dries up, bail.

MS appears to value market share over everything else, including business sense. If they're gonna piss away the fortune, why not collect a part of it?

"IMO veryone should sign up and take FULL advantage of this service!

Then when the money dries up, bail."

Yes, if you even remotely understood how this works and understood that the money you get comes from the person who sells you the widget, the money will dry up right around NEVER.

But good luck with your scheme...

How funny, Apple Fanboys scheming to contribute to Microsoft's bottom line while thinking they're hurting the company...

May 21, 08 - 09:48 pm Comment from: TheConfuzed1

Whoever Photochopped the pic gave Steve Ballmer girl hands.

chances are the procedure to get the cash back would be so convoluted and painful, with hidden charges for this an that, that it probably cost the consumer MORE in true m$ style

mw: dead

This is the root of the problem with MS having a monopoly that provides guaranteed revenue quarter after quarter. It allows them to distrupt markets so that they can try and tie it all in to Windows.

May 22, 08 - 06:33 am Comment from: LinuxGuyAndMacProdigalSon

boyweho, you beat me to it. Microsoft is actually learning. Not too long ago, they would have awarded Zune points, not given back cash.

"It allows them to distrupt markets so that they can try and tie it all in to Windows."

Just what piece of this evil plan is tied to Windows?

Microsoft is giving out money to use their products?.

Send me a check and I'll switch to a Vista PC.

There must be at least 6 zeros to the right of the decimal on that check though.

I may be a man whore, but I'm not a cheap man whore.

May 22, 08 - 02:49 pm Comment from: alansky

So when does Apple's "You couldn't pay me to switch to Microsoft" advertising campaign begin?