In an effort to lure people to its search engine and convince advertisers that it has a viable strategy to combat Google's share of the online ad market, Microsoft today unveiled a new program whereby it plans to pay consumers who search and buy products through Microsoft's Live Search engine.
Microsoft will reportedly pay users who buy products found through its Live Search Cashback engine between two and 30 percent of their purchase depending on the store they choose - in other words Microsoft is giving up their commission for referring a sale and passing it to users. The initiative may seem a bit desperate, but it's an interesting one nonetheless. As part of the program, the software giant is also unveiling a new business model that allows search marketers to pay for ads only when users buy a product, rather than when they simply click on their ads.