Doug Jacobs

Joystiq had a posting about Live's new reward program. You can accumulate
a few extra Microsoft Points by doing things like buying Live Gold
subscriptions, trying out Netflix, or buying certain games off the
Marketplace. The rewards are only a few dozen points here and there, but
since the program is free, you might as well sign up and get your few
hundred points a year or so.

Bing.com also has a rewards program I just found out about. You earn
reward points for various offers they post each day. For instance today's
offers was doing a search for shoes offered by this online shoe company.
You don't have to buy anything - just click the search, then close the
window. You get the credit (6 points). You can then cash points in to
get various things - including a gift card for 400 Microsoft Points (costs
400 Bing Reward Points.) You also can earn 1 point per 5 searches (max 6
points per day) using Bing. If you're dilligent, you shouldn't have a
problem earning a Microsoft Points card every few weeks.

Not a huge windfall, granted, but should be enough to pay for my annual
downloads from Live.

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It's not broken. It's...advanced.