In an effort to increase their market share in the very competitive search engine business, Microsoft just launched SearchPerk, a program awarding regular Live Search and Internet Explorer users with perks and prizes. The initiative, while not being the first of its kind, is facing mixed reviews from the press, which is not completely confident that such a program could have a tangible effect in the long term.

Microsoft had already launched a similar project in May, Live Search Cashback, thanks to which users can receive rebates for some of the items they can find using the Redmond search engine. Even though at first the Live Search market share increased at first thanks of it, recent analysis have shown that the long-term effect of Cashback was not a substantial one.

Now, the company is trying to approach the problem under a slightly different perspective with SearchPerk: Internet Explorer 6+ users who agree to install a tracking software on their computers and have their entire search data tracked while using the Live search engine will earn a credit for each search they perform each day, up to a maximum of 25.

The credits, or "tickets", all accumulate allowing users to collect prizes: 25 tickets get users a free music download, 105 get them a free ringtone, while 5,500 credits — or seven months worth of searching — will get users an xBox wireless controller. Participants also can opt to donate their tickets to charities, schools and other causes. The items will be redeemed on April 15, 2009, and Microsoft plans to expand the program even more should this first installment bring in satisfactory results.

According to CNET, Microsoft spokesmen explained in fact that the offer is currently limited to the first 250,000 U.S. residents who will express their interest in the program within the end of the year. In April, with the preliminary results at hand, the company will consider expanding the project beyond the national borders, possibly to other browsers and operating systems as well.

But for now, Firefox and Apple/Linux users can't even reach the SearchPerk website, a policy that seems to have upset many. But what seems to be hurting Microsoft's credibility the most, according to TechCrunch among others, is the fact that the policy of having to compensate their users in such a blatant way can sound like a last resort effort to raise awareness and build market share that a pluri-billionaire company such as Microsoft shouldn't have the need to embrace in the first place.

Other top search engines such as Ask.com and Yahoo are also participating in similar deals, with mixed results. Yahoo, for instance, has partnered with My Search Funds (now Homepage Friends) to offer a small sum — around $0.04 — for every Yahoo user search that is being tracked by their tool. In this case too, users need to install a Firefox or IE search box provided by the Yahoo partner that will track their searches and compensate them accordingly at the end of each month.

The question is at this point why all the top players have to so blatantly "buy out" part of their users in their attempt to contrast the rise of Google. In the case of Live Search, currently a distant third in the search engine race, PR Director Whitney Burk said that programs such as SearchPerks are still needed to introduce people to Microsoft's search product. "We know we have some challenges with the brand and perception. Simple awareness is still a challenge for us."

Programs such as SearchPerk, however, tend to significantly modify the user search behavior, who are now searching indiscriminately as many terms as possible instead of using the search engine to its full potential: according to Microsoft, people participating in programs such as Cashback or SearchPerk typically perform three times the number of normal searches, but with a very high percentage of "fake" (repeated or nonsensical) ones.

As a result, serious doubts are being raised even by Microsoft itself on whether the program has some actual potential, or is just a plain waste of money and resources for the company: looking at the most recent news on the Internet, the media seem to have decided for the latter.