Hitwise has noticed a trend over the last few weeks in the growing popularity of Live Search Cashback. For those unfamiliar with the service, Live Search Cashback helps users get cash back from shopping online. Similar to sites like Eversave, but integrated with the Live Search platform, the cashback program lets you shop anywhere online that participates in the program and collects your cash back savings all in one spot.

According to Hitwise reports, Live Search Cashback was at a 3.75% share of the total traffic to Live.com about eleven weeks ago, but had grown to 6.29% of the total traffic just seven days ago. The statistics delivered by Hitwise also track gender and note that many of these frugal shoppers are female with an income under $100,000 a year.

Live Search Cashback is growing its market share in a tough economic climate, and that alone says a lot about the program, but how does it work? Basically, it requires you to sign up for it, giving it some tracking information so it can follow your shopping and credit your cash back correctly. Once you have the Live Search set up with a Live Search Cashback account, you just remember to do all of your online shopping through the Live Search interface.

As you go about your normal bargain hunting, Cashback via Live Search will list products rated by price and participation in addition to shopping category. As long as you purchase items with the Live Search Cashback indicator logo on them (shown above), your cash back rebates and rewards get credited to your Cashback account. Users of the program can expect to see most rebates and rewards in their account within 60 days, a similar time frame to sites like MyPoints and other points, rewards and cash back programs.

With at least several months of economic crunch ahead of us, if not longer, every penny counts. If you haven’t already signed up for a shopping rewards program, you may want to check out Live Search Cashback and use it to save as many of your hard earned pennies as possible while you buy the items you need. Every penny counts these days, after all.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Cashback Facebook App Pays You to ShopMicrosoft Live Search Now Lets You Get Cashback Rewards on eBayMicrosoft Pays You For Using Its Search (If You Live In The US)Which Is Worth More? Product Search or Information Search….Microsoft SearchPerks to Reward Users for Using Live SearchMicrosoft Will Pay Users to Search, Says Bill GatesWoman Sues Apple For $1 Million - Over $200 Price Cut

This is part of an ongoing series about government 2.0 written by Dr. Mark Drapeau. To view previous posts in the series click here.

Recently I had the chance to attend an event called “Government 2.0 and Beyond… Harnessing Collective Intelligence,” which was hosted by the Department of Defense’s Information Resources Management College (IRMC). It had all the makings of a public relations boon: High-profile speakers like David Weinberger (who blogged from the event), corporate sponsorship, media coverage, and a new auditorium to show off. Alvin Toffler, the author of Future Shock, was even there. But what I didn’t see among the people in the room was urgency.

Much lip service was given to welcoming new technologies, openness, information sharing, transparency, and collaboration. But there was no talk of a strategy, a plan, or a roadmap. Frankly, there was no talk of anything concrete in the way of actual progress towards Government 2.0, as the title of the event would lead one to believe. And while I am certain that DOD Deputy CIO David Wennergren was genuine when he spoke about the future of command and control being a more agile system of “focus and converge,” I am also certain that people in my workplace have Dell laptops so old they have time for a power nap during boot up.

This is particularly embarrassing given that one of the speakers, Bruce Klein talked in detail about Cisco Connect, their “next-generation workforce environment” that includes an encyclopedia, feeds, blogs, chat, and virtual meetings. No one discussed why the Department of Defense didn’t have this capability, and no one asked. More embarrassing still, Cisco Connect is very similar in principle to something the government already has – the Intelligence Community-built INTELINK, that I have used and written about before; the word “INTELINK” was never uttered out loud.

As the event was winding down, I heard a line not unfamiliar to me at this point, about everyone in the room being an “agent of change” that had to help. I became a bit frustrated with this and Tweeted the following:

While it’s probably inappropriate to “benchmark our enemies” in a Mashable post, I think it’s safe to say that terrorist and criminal organizations don’t need pep talks in wood-paneled conference rooms to adopt new technologies and gain a competitive edge. In the battle of bloviating versus trial-and-error, who wins?

One of the panelists, the co-author of Wikinomics, Anthony Williams, quipped that “The Ontario Government blocked Facebook, so everyone moved to MySpace. It’s a futile exercise.” Many people in the audience snickered. I don’t know about them, but I still can’t access MySpace or YouTube from my work computer. This is not a complicated multinational treaty negotiation. If everyone is so aware of the problem, why can’t we just… fix it?

To be fair, the government has non-trivial security issues when it comes to information systems – they must function alone and with each other properly, cannot be infiltrated by outsiders, and they must provide trustworthy information (imagine hacking not to plant a computer virus, but rather false intelligence or misleading geographic coordinates). The big takeaway that federal officials had from DEFCON 16 in Las Vegas was that social software has created a “perfect storm” for hackers – lots of new software, largely untested security loopholes, and a changing definition of privacy in society. As part of my Social Software for Security (S3) research project at the National Defense University I am working with government “information assurance” professionals to determine which social technologies are {always, sometimes, never} safe to use with DOD systems.

Unfortunately, all of this is likely discouraging young people – digital natives, or the Gartner-dubbed “Generation V” – from choosing honorable work in public service as a profession, and it is encouraging bright people already in Washington, DC to move on to greener pastures. It may be appropriate that a group named “Foreigner” wrote the song I quoted at the beginning of this article, because from my standpoint “urgency” as it concerns adoption of social technology tools into the defense establishment is thus far largely a foreign concept.

Dr. Mark Drapeau is an Associate Research Fellow at the Center for Technology and National Security Policy of the National Defense University in Washington, DC. These views are his own and not the official policy or position of any part of the U.S. Government.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:In Finland, Government Disconnects ItselfFacebook Banned For Ontario Government EmployeesWhat Happens When the Government Goes Web 2.0Granicus Gets $10M for Government Webcasting ToolsGoogle’s Hopes for Government WebsitesUK Politicians Seek To Legislate Against YouTube ViolenceGovernmentdocs.org Adds Social Twist to the Freedom of Information Act

Source:Mashable!

After attracting nearly 20 million active users, what does the application formerly known as FunWall on Facebook do for an encore? Add professional content from the likes of CBS, NBC, and Warner Bros, according to The Wall Street Journal. The application’s creator – Slide – has signed a deal with a number of media companies that will allow users of FunSpace to embed clips of various TV shows on their friend’s profiles.

While the deal doesn’t include full-length shows, it will make recommendations based on the number of times a video is posted to people’s profiles. Of course, you could already embed YouTube videos using FunSpace, so plenty of professionally produced copyright content can already find its way onto the service, at least until YouTube deals with it on their end.

Nonetheless, given many user’s penchant for forwarding video clips to friends, FunSpace’s deal with the media companies should make it easier for them to do so, at least within the walls of Facebook. And for the content producers, Slide’s massive reach on Facebook should provide yet another vehicle to monetize their video online.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Slide - Funky Digital Photo ViewerSlide Users Add 1 Million Widgets Every DaySlide.com Becomes MySpace for SlideshowsSlide Set to Release Official MySpace AppsSlide Widgets top comScore Metrix, Reaching 65% of Widget AudienceSlide Joins Family of Banned Sites, in TurkeyPhotobucket’s Slide Show Upgrades for More Customization

Source:Mashable!

Microsoft is working to “innovate” its search business model in one clearly visible way: perks. Perks, perks, and more perks. This time it’s about SearchPerks.

It was in late May when Microsoft first gave users financial incentive to browse the commercial Web with the company’s Live Search engine. They called the program Cashback. A month later, Microsoft expanded the Cashback system to include eBay Buy-it-Now offers. Now, according to Mary Jo-Foley of ZDNet, it is set to issue SearchPerks, which, in short, provides users product vouchers that, if collected in certain quantities, can offer participants options for free music or air travel, or, alternatively, the chance to make philanthropic contributions of various sorts.

It’s hard to make a thorough analysis of these steps taken by Microsoft over the last several months, as the search business is as slow to change as it is multifaceted in nature. Advertising is of course king and is what drives revenue for market competitors, but how “the others” - the one’s who aren’t Google - manage to attain greater market share and, in turn, substantially greater revenue, is something of a mystery. What do they do? Well, in Microsoft’s case, it’s paying for clicks. Which can be considered gimmicky, yes. On the other hand, if it helps… it helps.

Here are the basics of the SearchPerks program. Through December 31, the company will work to register 250,000 users, U.S. residents only, who will be made to download a “desktop counter” to their PCs to catalog their usage of Live Search. Each actual search, necessary to be done on an Internet Explorer 6.0+ browser, grants them a single ticket. Tally a couple dozen or so, and you get something to listen to. Several hundred will grant you lots of sky miles on a choice of airlines. All business in the limited trial is to be completed by April 15. Also known as “Tax Day 2009.” If things are deemed go be going well, Microsoft will venture beyond America’s borders with its tickets and clocks.

A sensible person might say SearchPerks, as with the Cashback, only serves to devalue the company. Something of a last ditch attempt. Or attempts, plural. And that may well be true. But CEO Steve Ballmer, a man who, according to numerous comments made by technology and business columnist John C. Dvorak, subscribes exceedingly strongly to the so-called bean counter class of people working the situation room in Redmond, is one who introduced the last round of “giveaways.”

So one can only suppose it is with some conviction that the company head presses forth with the concept into the broader Live Search business, rather than keep it strictly to the product search venue. When all is said and done, I imagine this will not have helped Microsoft’s position very much. But neither will it cause an exodus. It’ll just… be. It smells of soft desperation, of Microsoft throwing its hands in the air and subsequently throwing things against the wall to see what sticks. Which isn’t a healthy impression to make at this point in the game.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Rumor: Microsoft Wants To Buy Ustream.TVMicrosoft Loses Court Appeal. Must Pay $690M for Market Dominance.Steve Ballmer Attacks Google’s Gmail AdsMicrosoft and Digg Sign Ad Deal, Acquisition MentionedDeveloping: Microsoft Reconsidering Yahoo OfferWill Microsoft Buy Facebook?MASSIVE: Microsoft May Acquire Yahoo for $50 Billion

When Microsoft launched their Live Search Cashback option back in May, all of the bloggers and reporters talked about how it was going to really boost Microsoft’s search market share. I took a different view, looking at it from the dealhunters point-of-view. In late June we talked to the deal hunters (me included) and they said that the Live Search Cashback was great, paying up to 35% rewards for shopping on eBay.

Today Techcrunch editor Erick Schonfeld has an article about how Microsoft hasn’t gained any market share with the new Live Search Cashback option and in fact the overall share dropped by a small percentage in July. Erick points to research by comScore and concludes with, "While two months worth of data is far from conclusive, it does suggest that in search you can’t buy market share. You have to earn it."

The 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.

For example, why would ANYONE not start a purchase on the Microsoft site? If you are buying items online and not getting cashback from Microsoft, Fatwallet or the other cashback services, you are simply throwing money away. Look at these cashback amounts:

• Zappos - 22.5%
• Footlocker - 45%
• Newegg - 3%

In 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.

Will Live Search Cashback take away market share from Google or Yahoo in the informational searches? No. Could it dominate the product search/price comparison category? Yes. Microsoft needs to learn how to market the search as a product and purchase search - and then we will see those charts change direction.

More CN Coverage:
– Docstoc
– Scribd
– Twitter

Back in May, Microsoft launched their "live search cashback" which basically helps you earn rewards (paid via PayPal) for items you buy when you enter the merchant’s site via Microsoft. While most believed that it would help Microsoft gain important search market share and also get people to convert from Google to Microsoft for general searching. I believed that while it might help with the market share, the bottom line is that deal hunters would be the only ones to really take advantage of the service and that it would generate more of a financial loss overall.

You see, us deal hunters are a special bunch. We will pick at that chicken bone until there’s nothing left, then sell the bone using a discount code. Over the years I’ve joked with friends about my "deal hunter levels" and have promoted friends to different levels depending on the deals they find. Not all of us can afford to pay market prices.

So what’s happened with Live Search Cashback recently? Well, the deal hunters have found a way to get 35% rewards on purchases on eBay. By doing certain searches on the Live Cashback search engine, there are links in the sponsored area for 35% off purchases at eBay. There’s even a step-by-step walkthrough of how to get the 35%. It gets even more interesting because now people are setting up auctions for cash, selling for over the face value of the cash, just to get the maximum 35% cashback.

The thread on Fatwallet has nearly 2,000 replies in the last 24 hours and SlickDeals’ thread has almost 3,000 replies and 250,000 pageviews.

The net result is I can pretty much guarantee the search numbers for June for Microsoft will be massive. Alone, I’ve completed over 150 searches over the past 24 hours alone looking for the goodies. Let’s see how Microsoft spins this boost in searches when the industry reports surface.

Here’s where it gets tricky - many of the forum posts are related to the terms and conditions related to the cashback search. I sure hope that Microsoft makes good on all of these rebates through this eBay deal. Trust me, you don’t want to piss off the deal hunters.

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