Microsoft offers money to shoppers using Its Live Search

In its latest attempt to grab the monster share of the online search market, Microsoft on Wednesday launched a “Cashback” service that pays users a rebate for buying products they found through the software giant's Windows Live search engine.

Announcing the company's "Live Search Cashback" service at advance08, Microsoft's annual advertising customer event, in Redmond, Washington, Chairman Bill Gates said the service rewards people who use Microsoft's Live search engine to purchase products online with a cash refund ranging from 2 percent to 30 percent.

"This is giving you a reason why you should use a particular search engine," said Bill Gates. "We think we're entering a period where there'll be quite a bit of change (in search)."

Microsoft’s Live Search Cashback service comes as the world's largest software maker’s latest trick to draw users to its online search engine, which faces fierce competition from the Mountain View, California-based search giant Google Inc. and the Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo Inc.

Google Inc.’s ease to use, simplicity of design and massive database listings have made it the numero uno search engine in the world. It owns 61.6 percent of the online search market, up from 59.8 percent in March. The Web search leader is extending its design magnificence in new directions by making the search services more comprehensive.

Last year on May 16, the world’s top online search provider, combed its different Web search services into one "Universal Search" service that presents Web sites, news, video and other results on one easy-to-use page. It also announced the addition of a Universal Navigation Bar at the top of Google search and other pages, which allows users to quickly get to other Google properties. For example, Gmail users can jump instantly to search, calendar, documents, and other services.

Started by two Stanford graduates– Jerry Yang and David Filo in 1994, Yahoo! is the largest and most comprehensive information portal on the Web. Yahoo! has its own service called Yahoo Buzz that shows most-searched-for subjects and the biggest movers. Yahoo owns 20.4 percent of the search market, while Microsoft’s Live Search engine trails behind both the companies, having a market share of 11.3 percent in the U.S.

With the launch of cashback service, Microsoft hopes to entice the users to use its search engine. "We want to earn your loyalty and reward it with cashback savings for your everyday online shopping," Microsoft said in a statement posted on its official Web site.

Microsoft said that more than 700 retailers have agreed to participate in the program. The merchants which will offer more than 10 million products for the service are Barnes & Noble.com, Circuit City, Cookware.com, Crutchfield, eBay, HP, Jockey, Foot Locker, TigerDirect.com, Zappos.com, and Home Depot among others.

The launch of the new cashback service came at the time when Microsoft, which dominates the global computer market with its ubiquitous Windows software, is making immense efforts to acquire Yahoo Inc.

The software maker is struggling hard to meet Google’s challenge in the online search market, and take a monster slice of the online services market. With the acquisition of Yahoo!, Microsoft intends to give a significant challenge to its arch-rival Google in online-search competition.