The bMighty Blog -- Business & E-Business

Microsoft has offered to pay consumers who use its Livesearch engine to find and buy stuff. For smaller businesses, the important question is this: Is this going to change how search gets done?

Microsoft's Live Search cashback program is an effort by the software giant to get more people to use its search engine. As John Paczkowski writes on AllThingsD "Like Microsoft's hostile bid for Yahoo, this new service is yet another effort to bolster its laggard search service, which has long been a very distant third in the search market."

Google is the search market leader and has until now defined how search gets done. Many smaller businesses live and die by their Google search rankings but will Microsoft's play for more of the market change things?

The New York Times notes that, Microsoft's cashback "is part of a plan to come up with new approaches to areas of the search business where they see opportunities to make inroads against Google, the market leader."

According to the Wall Street Journal, "The idea to get consumers to use a search service by enticing them with financial rewards has been tried by companies before with little success. Microsoft, a relative latecomer to the search business, believes it can improve upon the concept by implementing it on a broader scale and by coupling it with new options for advertisers."

This is Microsoft after all. If they do it, you can bet it's going to be done on a large, grand scale.

The WSJ noted that the "program includes products from 700 merchants, including Barnes & Noble.com and Overstock.com. Consumers who buy items from participating merchants after searching for them and clicking on an ad can get a cash rebate via an online Microsoft account they create."

SearchEngineLand writes that Microsoft does see search "changing over time. It sees the core technologies changing, consumer expectations growing and changing, and the economic model of search changing. "

Another point made that is significant for smaller businesses is this: "It will also be interesting to see what Google and Yahoo's responses will be. Will they emulate or imitate aspects of the program?"

And this: "While there may be some adjustment to the program, advertisers will likely appreciate it for the elimination of potential click fraud and the fact they're only paying when an actual transaction occurs."

Do you think there's a place for smaller business in Microsoft's search model? Let us know.

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