Bing Shopping
 | |
| Bing Shopping. Screenshot of Bing Shopping | |
| Developer(s) | Microsoft |
|---|---|
| Stable release | Final
/ June 3, 2010 |
| Type | Search Engine |
| Website | http://www.bing.com/shopping |
Bing Shopping (formerly MSN Shopping, Live Search Products and Windows Live Product Search) was a products search service and part of Microsoft's Bing search engine, discontinued around October 1, 2013.[1] It was customised for finding products available for sale on the web. The results provided information such as product pictures, pricing, and description. These products could be indexed by crawling the web and extracting rich meta-data from web pages.
Cashback program
![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (April 2010) |
The Bing Cashback program was a rebate program launched on May 22, 2008 (Live Search Cashback) that allowed users to search for products from multiple vendors and find their prices and offering money back for purchases made through the site.
The cashback service started in June 2006 as part of Jellyfish.com.[2] On October 2, 2007, Microsoft announced the purchase of Jellyfish.com with an estimated price of $50 million.[3][4] Microsoft intended to use the Jellyfish engine as part of their Live Search services in attempt to catch up to Google in the search market.[5]
The cashback portion of Jellyfish.com was integrated with Bing (then Live Search) and officially announced on May 22, 2008. From December 1, 2008, Bing Cashback began offering users to receive cashbacks instantly, instead of having to wait for 60 days. This feature only worked in conjunction with eBay.[6]
On April 14, 2009, Microsoft officially merged Cashback with the then Live Search Products.[7] On June 3, 2009, a part of the rebrand from Live Search to Bing, the service was renamed "Bing Cashback". On June 4, 2010, Microsoft announced that Bing Cashback would be retired on July 30, 2010 due to lack of interest.[8]
Product catalog upload
Microsoft used to run a Product Upload program to encourage merchants interested in making their product catalog available in Bing Product Upload to be uploaded and indexed for the service. However, this service was discontinued on May 15, 2009.
See also
References
- ^ Bing Search Blog: Say Goodbye to Product Search.
- ^ Washington Post, "BuzzWorthy: At This Auction Site, Prices (on Chickens, iPods, Etc.) Are Going, Going Down", retrieved 13 March 2008
- ^ Official blog of Live Search team, "Microsoft acquires Jellyfish.com", retrieved 13 March 2008
- ^ ZDNet, "Microsoft buys Jellyfish comparison-shopping search engine", retrieved March 18, 2008
- ^ BBC News, "Microsoft adds cashback search", retrieved 22 May 2008
- ^ Live Search team blog: You asked for it: instant cashback!
- ^ Live Search team blog: Saving Money Just Got a Little Bit Easier
- ^ Bing Search Blog: A Farewell to Bing cashback.