Microsoft Rewards is how Microsoft will pay you to use Edge, Bing and more

PCWorld ^ | Aug 17, 2016 | Mark Hachman

[dayglored]

Years back, Microsoft began paying people to use its Bing search service via a program called Bing Rewards. Now, Microsoft will do the same with its Edge browser and other products.

Microsoft announced Wednesday that over the next few weeks, Bing Rewards will become Microsoft Rewards. The concept remains the same: The more you use or buy Microsoft products, the more freebies you’ll receive in return. With the debut of Microsoft Rewards, you'll also be able to accrue points by browsing with Edge or purchasing items at brick-and-mortar Microsoft Stores.

Why this matters: At the end of July, Google Chrome held over 50 percent of the world’s browser market share; Edge is at 5.09 percent, according to NetApplications. Microsoft clearly wants to lift that number. Locking down Cortana to use only Bing might be seen as the stick, but a rewards program like Microsoft Rewards is the carrot.

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[dayglored]

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[dayglored]

Microsoft Rewards your good behavior ... PING!

You can find all the Windows Ping list threads with FR search: just search on keyword "windowspinglist".

[umgud]

I’m just not biting. Don’t really care for all the MS suite. I also don’t like being steered or semi-forced to use their products.

[867V309]

The more you use or buy Microsoft products, the more freebies you’ll receive in return. With the debut of Microsoft Rewards, you'll also be able to accrue points by browsing with Edge or purchasing items at brick-and-mortar Microsoft Stores.

Oh, good grief. Nobody in their right mind would buy or use any MS product beyond a necessary OS and a legacy MS Office installation. Same with Adobe, by the way.

[Crolis]

I like my Windows Phone and Microsoft Band. Best camera phone I’ve ever used and the Band is pretty useful. My family also gets good use out of our Xbox One.

[Migraine]

They could get me to use Edge and Bing if only they’d stop making them so effin annoying. Why not try that novel marketing strategy??

[TexasRepublic]

“Oh, good grief. Nobody in their right mind would buy or use any MS product beyond a necessary OS and a legacy MS Office installation. Same with Adobe, by the way.”

You don’t even need Microsoft’s OS or office suite to do the basics. At this very moment I am running Linux from a bootable memory stick. Besides the OS and browser, the stick also contains a full office suite (LibreOffice) and other basic applications.

[867V309]

I like my Windows Phone and Microsoft Band.

Re: Windows Phone---not enough users to be a factor. Glad you like yours.



Re: Microsoft Band--this kind of krap is useful for motivation junkies and the physically infirm.

[mass55th]

I’ve been doing Bing Rewards for a while now. In the beginning, at the Gold level, I was able to earn 30 points a day with searches. Then they changed it to 15 points a day for PC search, and 10 more points for mobile searches. I have a mobile phone, but it’s just a plain, ordinary one...no online connections, so I’m not eligible to get the extra 10 points a day. I’m a Mac user, which means I use Safari or Firefox for my browsers. There is no Mac version for their Edge browser, so I’m assuming I’ll just be getting the same number of points per day that I’ve been accruing all along. I like Bing, especially their daily home page pictures, and they honor the holidays, including Veterans Day and Memorial Day.

[mass55th]

"The more you use or buy Microsoft products, the more freebies you’ll receive in return."

Or you can just go to Radio Shack and "invent" a clock that looks like a bomb, and get all kinds of freebies from Microsoft.

[867V309]

Or you can just go to Radio Shack and "invent" a clock that looks like a bomb, and get all kinds of freebies from Microsoft.

Or go to Abu Dabu until the heat burns your a$$ off, return where everyone hates you in the US, sue, and the jigger adminstration will make you rich forever. The End.

[reg45]

I hate Bing, it always shows photos instead of text articles when I do a search.

[blueplum]

I just got a computer with Edge. Icon is similar so I thought it was Explorer at first. I had to set it to display clear page. Otherwise it loads with pages and pages (and pages) of photo stories and ads.

Also, I’m seriously missing adBlock. Webpage ads are placed so close to the right (what DO you call that up/down bar thing?) that it’s hard to keep the cursor on an extended scroll down without clicking an ad. There’s an adBlock Plus coming for Win 10 but the first release has weird issues.

So, other than quick or travel use, this user-unfriendly “Edge browser” computer will probably collect dust for a while.

[867V309]

There’s an adBlock Plus coming for Win 10 but the first release has weird issues.

What a waste of time. Use NoScript and Ghostery and all your pop-up, tracking, browser virus problems are over.

'course, use an MS browser and you're screwed.

[daniel1212]

Blocking Unwanted Connections with a Hosts File - MVPS HOSTS file

I use (slightly edited) Blocking Unwanted Connections with a Hosts File - MVPS HOSTS file

But except for a few searches, Firefox with extensions is far superior to MS, or Chrome, for power users.

BBCodeXtra https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bbcodextra/ An extension which adds to the context menu new commands to insert BBCode/Html/XHtml codes in an easy and fast way... Very useful for FR.

FT DeepDark https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ft-deepdark/ Best theme i found.

Noiascrollbars https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/noiascrollbars A work of beauty and far better visibility.

ColorfulTabs https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/colorfultabs/?src=search/ Make tabs distinctive. Options to change color per site, etc.

Copy as HTML Link https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/copy-as-html-link/?src=search R. click and Copy as HTML Link

Converter: Right click on metric sizes and convert to standard. Also for currency. http://www.the-converter.co/

Color That Site: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/color-that-site/ — Change the colors of web sites including text.

Session Manager 0.7.5 https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/session-manager/ Saves sessions

Tab Mix Plus 0.3.8.6 https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tab-mix-plus Reduce tab width; Enable multiple tab rows; Change how active tab looks, etc.

Signature: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/autopaste/ insert custom text into posts and emails.

Googlebarlite: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/googlebar-lite/ — More options and customizations than Google Toolbar

Lazarus: Form Recovery: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/lazarus-form-recovery/ — Lazarus securely auto-saves all forms as you type, so after a crash, server timeout, or whatever, you can go back to the form, right click, "recover form",

Google/Yandex search link fix https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-search-link-fix/ The actual URL is copied.

Mozilla Archive Format https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/mozilla-archive-format/

Memory Restart https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/memory-restart/ Shows how much ram FF is using, and enables easy restart to flush memory.

Menu Wizard: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/s3menu-wizard/ — Helps removing, moving and renaming menus and menu items

[Resettozero]

Wow. Thanks.

[Resettozero]

Tried uBlock Origin?

[jsanders2001]

My dad always told me nothing is for free. I have learned how true that is the hard way. Same goes for freebies from Microsoft. You’re giving up something.you just don’t know what “it” is.

[texas booster]

BTTT.

Thanks, I will work through your suggestions to see what works best for me.

I usually keep my browsers very minimal.

[Geoffrey]

[b]Thank you. Added some already...
[/b]

I like bbcode, just used it for the first time!

Many thanks.