EON

New York - Today, Microsoft announced a new program called Live SearchPerks

The new program requires participants to install a small application that will act as counter on Live Search. The program  will calculate how many times a participant uses the search engine of Microsoft, which will assign a number of points within a limit of 25 per day. With these points, the user can claim at prices as downloading a musical (25 points), a plane ride (500 points) and may also decide to donate points to a cause of his choice .

But participation in SearchPerks is subject to a number of constraints. Registration for the program which will last until 15 April 2009, is limited to 250 000 users who have shown before 31 December 2008 and reside in the United States. Depending on the success of the operation, SearchPerks can be extended to other countries. However, the implementation relating to SearchPerks only supports Internet Explorer browser and hence only Windows users are accepted. For the promotion of a search engine …

In an interview with Reuters, Frederick Savoye, director of Live Search explained that the CashBack program has not helped to increase the market share of the company in the area of search engines, but the company recognizes that such initiatives are needed to enhance the brand: “We know we have many challenges in the development of the brand,” says Whitney Burk, head of press relations.