Dominique asked 3 years ago
New search engine proves it pays to surf Internet
Boston Herald
By Stephanie Schorow
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
CRM News Home
An Internet search engine launching today is betting that greed trumps Google.
Each search you do on http://www.blingo.com gives you a chance to win a prize. Users don’t have to pay anything, register or provide personal information, and they will be immediately told if and what they won.
Prizes range from movie tickets to Amazon.com certificates, Netflix subscriptions, digital cameras or iPods.
“The only catch is I can’t guarantee everyone is going to win,” said Frank Anderson, a West Coast entrepreneur and co-founder with Ron Davis of Blingo.
Like many Internet start-ups, Blingo (the name inspired by both “Bingo” and “bling”) may seem too good to be true.
Anderson said Blingo will initially eschew large cash prizes; it aims to offer smaller prizes to a larger number of users. In December, 450 prizes will be given out, he said. In the future, the more users, the more prizes offered.
Winners are picked by computers programmed for random awards. Only then will they be asked for a mailing or e-mail address, which remain private. To discourage obsessive “gamers,” users’ eligibility is limited to 30 searches a day, Anderson said.
To make a profit, Blingo sells advertising and gets click-through revenue, the same as Google and Yahoo, Anderson said.
“We can’t out-Google Google in terms of search quality,” Anderson acknowledged. “What I hope is that (Blingo) will do what you want, but you have a chance to win something.”
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