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"It is almost a given today that Google is the master in the search space, making money hand over fist because of its dominance. On the flip side of the coin we have Microsoft, whose efforts with search is the constant fodder for blogs wanting to take shots at the company. Granted Microsoft\u2019s place in the search hierarchy isn\u2019t anything that they can be proud of, but as a cash rich company they should never be underestimated.\nEarlier today Stan Schroeder posted the news on Mashable about Microsoft acquiring Greenfield Online for a princely sum. Much of the talk within the tech blogosphere about the deal is one of confusion. Many of the people are wondering why Microsoft would be interested in buying the company and then only keeping Ciao!, the European shopping and price comparison site. The other parts of the company apparently already have buyers lined up for the rest of the Greenfield Online company.\nOn the surface this would seem\u00A0 to be a rather strange acquisition for Microsoft, with some suggesting that the purchase is just a way to increase its reach into the European market. For Microsoft though the idea behind the purchase is to primarily integrate Ciao! capabilities into Microsoft Live Search\nmakes the company a fantastic asset to the future of our search offer. Integrating Ciao\u2019s capabilities into Live Search will provide a strong launchpad for our commercial search offer in Europe and enhance our e-commerce offering on MSN.\u201D\nJust by itself this news really may not seem like that much. However, there could be another way to look at this which is what Allen Stern of CenterNetworks is proposing. The idea is that Microsoft may not be interested in the same type of information search business that Google dominates right now.\n\nIn his post about the Live Search Cashback program Allen suggests that this could still be a success for the company\n\nThe issue that so many writers are missing is that this new cashback option will never get users who are looking for information to switch. Why would I switch from Google to Microsoft Live Search Cashback when I am looking for cat photos? Microsoft is sitting on a huge homerun if they could get their ducks in a row about how to market this tool properly.\nFor example, why would ANYONE not start a purchase on the Microsoft site?\n\nEspecially if that search is including the technology from one of the leading European shopping and price comparison businesses, which will make finding the deals available even easier. Tie that in with the cashback program, which as Allen also points out is returning some really decent savings\n\nLook at these cashback amounts:\nZappos - 22.5%Footlocker - 45%Newegg - 3%\nIn the deal hunter segment, the Microsoft Live Search Cashback is doing well from my perspective. Fatwallet continues to be a discussion place for the cashback search and as of yesterday there are now merchants paying up to 62.5% back.\n\nWhile many in the tech industry and blogging world might argue that there is no way that Microsoft can beat Google in the search space it could be\u00A0 that they are forgetting something. Not everyone coming on the web to search for stuff is trying to find information. A verge percentage of those people are shoppers looking for products and any deals available. For Microsoft this could very well be the route to success in the search space. give the people a real solid reason to use Live Search over Google when looking to buy stuff \u2013 give them money back via deep discounts.\nMicrosoft has deep enough pockets and has proven that it is more than willing to lose money in the beginning in order to make big money in the end. People in general don\u2019t expect to have to pay money for the information they find on the web but they do expect to have to pay for products that they might buy. In this case if Microsoft can provide them with better product search results and a way to save money they could indeed make Google start looking over their shoulder."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2008/08/29/which-is-worth-more-product-search-or-information-search%E2%80%A6/>