14 DAY TRIAL // The latest promotion built around Live Search cannot be accessed with Firefox or Opera. In fact, Microsoft has cut all third party browsers out of the equation, as only users of Internet Explorer, version 6.0 and above, will be able to sign up for SearchPerks. The latest initiative from the Redmond giant designed to “buy” searchers away from rival search engines, SearchPerks promises to deliver perks and prizes to users as they search the web. Essentially tickets collected for searching can be turned into prizes from music downloads to Xbox wireless controllers.
“Get 500 tickets just by signing up and downloading the Perk Counter. Start searching using Live Search at Live.com and MSN.com, or on Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger. For every search (up to 25 per day), you’ll earn a ticket towards great prizes. Stay tuned for additional ways to earn tickets once you join the promotion. Redeem your tickets for prizes once the promotion ends on April 15, 2009,” reads a message from Microsoft.
The software company is not at the first attempt to offer incentives to searchers in order to attract their queries to Live Search, but most importantly away from competitors Google and Yahoo. However, outside of making the promotion available exclusively to IE users, Microsoft is also limiting the number of participants to the first 1 million respondents that will sign up by December 31, 2008. On top of this, the initiative is addressed only at U.S. residents.
SearchPerks participants will have to download and install the Perk Counter, a utility designed to track a part of the searchers' behavior. The software giant's promise is that the Perk Counter is not set up to discern or record the actual searchers, any result that the search engines return to the end users or any clicked ad.
“The software records and sends to Microsoft the number of web Searches you do each day on different search engines; the types of Searches you complete, such as for news or images; and the number of online ads you click on. It also sends your Internet protocol address, the type of operating system, the language code of the operating system, the version of Internet Explorer, the version of the Perk Counter software you are using, and information about the browser you are using as well as which search toolbars, if any, are installed on the computer. The software may also collect information regarding the way you enter search queries for fraud detection purposes,” the company revealed.
Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 is available for download here.