Microsoft Continues To “Encourage” The Use Of Bing

This time no promise of monetary reward, but something almost as good for many. The newest campaign to get you to use the search upstart is a natural tie-in.

In a campaign to get you to use their decision engine, you can pick up some wi-fi usage after searching with Bing.

Maximum PC explains the rest of the tie-in -

Microsoft’s Bing and JiWire have a proposition for you. Free WiFi in exchange for using Bing. Interested? The promotion would give users free Internet access at participating hotspots if they do just one search with Bing. In conjunction with JiWire’s advertising network, Microsoft will be extending the offer to various hotels and airports.

The campaign was started in September at several thousand locations. It managed to attract between 30 and 40 percent of visitors to the hotspots. This is extremely high, as most ads only get interaction from 0.1 to 0.2 percent of people. Microsoft reportedly plans to continue with the promotion, which is a part of JiWire’s Ads for Access campaign. The campaign allows companies to give customers something in exchange for their time. This can be taking a survey, watching a video ad, or (in this case) using the Bing search engine.

The next time you’re in an airport, keep an eye out for these ads. It could get you free access courtesy of a certain Redmond software giant.

I don’t remember Google doing anything like this when it began. But I don’t think Google was ever given a hand up by a company like Microsoft. With the relatively unlimited stream of dollars coming from Microsoft, Bing will continue to grow, but how long will it be before it stands on its own?

Experience shows that Microsoft quickly tires of things that don’t pay for themselves, so we must wonder how long Bing will be subsidized before Microsoft lets it stand alone to live or die.

In the mean time, lots of free wi-fi use is possible.

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Quality means doing it right when no one is looking. Henry Ford

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