The 1st of October marked the day when Microsoft launched Search Perks, a promotion which awards points to regular users of Live Search. Users will be given points for every search made, with 25 daily searches to be rewarded. The points can be then exchanged for books, music downloads and other prizes. This campaign is aggressively promoting Microsoft’s search engine, taking advantage of the current economic situation in the U.S tempting people to use their product in exchange for different prizes.

The campaign is currently only available in the U.S and users’ searches will be monitored by a program downloadable in the form of a toolbar for Internet Explorer. The program supports any version of IE higher than 6. The campaign ends in April next year and those who register before the end of December this year will receive a bonus of 500 extra points. The points accumulated during the promotion can only be exchanged for prizes in April, at the end of the promotion.

Apparently, Microsoft’s plan of attracting more visitors on their search engine is working as their traffic is steadily rising. Eleven weeks ago, Cashback, a program that gives people discounts for products found through Live Search, represented only approximately 3% of the searches on Live, while recently it grew to almost double, 6.29%.

Microsoft said that tests showed that people were three times more likely to use Live Search when they were offered redeemable points than when they weren't.

"People like to engage with us a lot more when they use SearchPerks," says Frederick Savoye, a senior director on Microsoft's search team.
The program was launched as new web traffic figures Thursday showed that Google had extended its lead to 63 per cent of the US search market in August. Yahoo came in with a 19.6 per cent share, followed by Microsoft with an 8.3 per cent share.

Skeptics say that though this promotion might help Live’s traffic to grow a little, on the long run it might affect the company’s image, portraying it as desperate and with no other ways of promoting their products.