Bing Rewards Preview Review
To join, click here.
Date Launched: September 22, 2010
How to Earn: Set your homepage to Bing, Install the Bing Toolbar and use it to do searches, try out new Bing features. 250 points for joining (a free Windows Live ID is required). Only available on Internet Explorer.
Cash out for: Merchandise (including electronics, household items, and Bing swag, which will be shipped free of charge) and gift cards (including Amazon and Starbucks, but limited to a max of $100 in GCs during the year-long promotion)
Limit One Account Per: U.S. resident 13 or older with a unique computer. Members can use up to 3 computers as long as they don’t share them with another member. A max of five accounts is allowed per household. (Yes, it is confusing.)
Notes:
1. Bing Rewards Preview is a limited time program available only until September 30, 2011.
2. This toolbar and the points earned from activity on Bing Rewards Preview are completely separate from the Club Bing program.
3. The terms require searches that are “the act of an individual user manually entering text for the good faith purpose of obtaining results for such user’s own research purpose.” That means no bots and no nonsense searches for points. Searches performed in background tabs don’t count, and there will be a cap on points earned per month on various activities.
4. The terms advise members to redeem points promptly as rewards may be changed, and the points for each reward may also be changed. Prizes are limited and are on a first come, first served basis.
5. IE must be used and InPrivate Browsing must be turned off in order to earn points.
My Take: This is just a revamp of Microsoft Live Search SearchPerks from around this same time two years ago. Been there, done that. Not interested. I’m not willing to trade the privacy of my every online move, having every site visit and every click reported back to the Microsoft Central Hive for analysis, in exchange for a MAXIMUM of $100 in gift cards per year. I’m pretty sure that a person’s annual browsing data will be worth more than $100 to Microsoft. Besides, I’m not going to change my preferred browser, Firefox, for IE, or my preferred search engine, Google, to Bing. And there’s no reward for shopping in the new Bing Rewards Preview. So… no thanks, I’ll pass.
Websites Most Like Bing Rewards Preview: Blingo, Club Bing, iRazoo, Swagbucks
Related Articles: Bing Cashback to Close (6/10), Microsoft Enters Toolbar Arena with MSN Toolbar’s Live Cashback “Gleam” (3/09), Microsoft Live Search SearchPerks Review (10/08), Microsoft Announces Plans for Live Search and Cashback (7/08), Microsoft Live Search Club Review (6/07)
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
So totally agree! You can NOT buy my privacy for $100 annually. Not so sure you can buy it for 100 x that annually if at all. There is plenty I like and can accept from Microsoft but this is NOT one of them.
Thanks for another great review.
I’ll also pass. That’s a whole lotta nothin for wantin a whole lotta info they’ve got goin on there.