As part of this “test-and-learn” mentality, we will be retiring the Bing cashback feature, which means that the last day you can earn cashback will be July 30, 2010.
Why are we doing this? When we originally began to offer the cashback feature, it was designed to help advertisers reach you with compelling offers, and to provide a new type of shopping experience that would change user behavior and attract a bunch of new users to Bing.
In lots of ways, this was a great feature – we had over a thousand merchant partners delivering great offers to customers and seeing great ROI on their campaigns, and we were taking some of the advertising revenue and giving it back to customers. But after a couple of years of trying, we did not see the broad adoption that we had hoped for.
"test-and-learn"? I thought it was the old "get-you-hooked-and-then-pull-the-rug-out-from-under-you" tactic from Microsoft again. Not sure it will work as well with search engines as it has for operating systems though.
ByronM
3:12 am on Jun 5, 2010 (gmt 0)
Its just easier as a consumer to not deal with cash back and/or rebates period.
Mike_Feury
6:15 am on Jun 5, 2010 (gmt 0)
"Its just easier as a consumer to not deal with cash back and/or rebates period."
Right, the rebate well was poisoned a long time ago in my experience. Ecommerce demands making transactions easier, not more difficult.
Sgt_Kickaxe
7:43 am on Jun 5, 2010 (gmt 0)
Search engine + cash back = a mix of two things that shouldn't mix. I'm glad the plug was pulled.
skipfactor
5:29 am on Jun 6, 2010 (gmt 0)
“test-and-learn” mentality
crash & burn from the start on this MS search brainstorm.
J_RaD
2:47 pm on Jun 6, 2010 (gmt 0)
never used it.
nbhp
4:34 pm on Jun 6, 2010 (gmt 0)
I used Bing Cash Back and was able to get $1,000 back. I will miss not having it available.
setzer
10:14 pm on Jun 6, 2010 (gmt 0)
Bummer. I saved around $700 through Bing's cashback program. Sad to see it go.
