Comments on: Is Microsoft Cashback the Future of Search?

By: nmw

nmw — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 10:24:54 +0000

I noted something a couple days ago that *EVERYONE* had apparently missed:

Wall St. and tech opinion seemed to be almost diametrically opposed on this! :O

See http://gaggle.info/post/59/financial-business-news-vs-tech-opinions

By: Chinmay

Chinmay — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:30:17 +0000

In any online business there alws seem two obvious ways to get ahead….one is to redefine the way system works or beat the system instead. Google did ace job with Search, Adsense, Adwords few years ago by redefining the way people perceived Search or Internet Advertising. Microsoft (no wonder its a great firm) hasn’t been able to bring the “Wow” factor. Thus, I must say that their latest “Cashback” initiative seems a good start in this direction (atleast in theory). Agreed – they can;t beat the ubiquitous Google but then the Cashback is like a “Deals” site as mentioned above. And people won’t use it as a basic search engine – its NOT future of search for sure.

But then if I plan to buy a Plasma TV & get a good Cashback…I guess I wud definitely try MS Live

Quite a thought provoking post though….!

~Chinmayz

By: dutch schultz

dutch schultz — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:00:15 +0000

I agree with buy roseville potter. i dont believe they can win right now against google who is almost a monopoly right now. It will be interesting to see how far microsoft can go with it. I am sure they have a few ego’s over there that would not lay down easily.

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 27 May 2008 13:41:34 +0000

Love the new look of the site John.

http://www.yagoosoft.com

By: William Bakker

William Bakker — Tue, 27 May 2008 05:30:19 +0000

Steve Hafner, CEO of Kayak.com provided an interesting analysis of the Farecast purchase at the Travolution Summit in London last week:

Microsoft is in a tough spot. They’ve gone on record to say they want to compete against Google. They’re not really going to get there with horizontal search so they’ve got a strategy to go vertical search. So they're assembling the Microsoft Office of vertical search. You’ll see them buy a real estate site, a job site, a travel site, and weave that together into a search volume competitor to Google.

About Kayak he said:

Our mission statement is: Number one travel site world-wide. Best place for advertisers to market their services. And do it with the lowest operating costs ever seen. We’re going up against Google, we’re going up against Expedia, and we’re doing it with a Craigslist operating philosophy. It’s crazy.

There's more. Full interview:
http://www.wilhelmus.ca/2008/05/kayak_ceo_steve_hafner_intervi.html

By: Tom Nocera

Tom Nocera — Tue, 27 May 2008 03:13:06 +0000

So Google and Microsoft begin to engage in a very serious "search" turf war based on "buying into" or "holding onto" marketshare.

Seems to me that small businesses, the backbone of our economy, stand to benefit most from that kind of battle. And, when (not if) a serious presentation model disruptor threat surfaces, like Searchme, I think could prove to be, those disruptors just become easy pickings for either Google or Microsoft to acquire.

Change is now jangling in the air and Microsoft has deep pockets. Who wouldn't want to "partner" with them with that business model that makes them the equivalent of an online commissioned salesman?

I, for one, wish Microsoft well on executing their "buy in" strategy. Their timing is excellent. This downward cycle gives them the potential of becoming a truly meaningful long term economic stimulus coming from the private sector.

By: michael s

michael s — Tue, 27 May 2008 01:01:22 +0000

People have attempted to disrupt via presentation, but nobody has in fact actually caused any disruption. Can you name one search provider who has been able to capture > 10% market-share by disrupting on the presentation layer?

By: BuyRosevillePottery.com

BuyRosevillePottery.com — Mon, 26 May 2008 22:34:35 +0000

This is not really search- it's deals. This is a competitor to Froogle, MySimon, DealTime, Shopping, etc etc. and not a true competitor to Google. Does Microsoft really want to start a "who can pay more" battle with Google, because that's definitely not a battle they can win at this point, especially with the trust factor you mentioned.

PS the redesign looks clean and great!