Blog home4 weeks ago I reported (yeah that makes me sound like a journalist!) that Microsoft had acquired Farecast for 115 million USD (see original blog post).
It hasn’t taken long for Farecast to be integrated into the new home at http://farecast.live.com/
However, just a change of URL wouldn’t be enough to get me to write a post. What has got me to write is another Microsoft project that has gone live this week - Live Search Cashback - http://search.live.com/cashback
One advantage that Microsoft has over competitors (such as Google) is plenty for cash…. (or so one can safely assume). They are now using it to buy market share.
What is Live search cashback?
Basically Microsoft is bribing consumers to search via its Live.com search engine by giving discounts on purchases found from products located on live.com search results.
It is a “cost per sale” (CPA) type deal where most of the advertiser revenue gets refunded back to the end consumer (hence Microsoft is subsidising the overall system with its own bank balance - rather than making this a profit generating scheme)
Press and blog coverage has been favourable… and it may be a great success. Previous trial runs (where prizes were on offer from Microsoft) have had a positive impact on Live.com search traffic…. so the chances are that “Cashback” will gain traction.
Read the official pitch on how you can become involved as an advertiser (non travel though)
Yeah but what about travel?
None of the existing products are travel products (no flights, hotels, packages etc)…… however, if you listen to the Gillmor Gang podcast from the 22nd May http://gillmorgang.techcrunch.com/2008/05/22/gillmor-gang-052208/
Right at the end, start at about 55 mins - Mike Arrington (Techcrunch) mentions that he has heard that Farecast is going to run the cashback scheme “soon” for travel products.
In particular he mentions that this means you may be able to get a United Airlines flight on Farecast / Live.com cheaper than you can buy on the United Airlines own website……
Would that be enough to wake Google up and be forced to build a travel portal? If this cashback system becomes successful, it probably would be…..
p.s. I promise not to write about Google for an entire week next week.
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