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, Windows Live 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.

History

A screenshot of Windows Live Shopping homepage

Windows Live Shopping was originally launched in Beta form as part of Microsoft's Windows Live suite. It was built entirely on AJAX technology and had many social and community features. In addition to a retail shopping website, it featured drag-and-drop items to a shopping list, share lists with other users, product and seller reviews, public shopping guides with Windows Live Shopping Guides and an enhanced preview.

On February 20, 2007, Windows Live Shopping beta was rebranded as MSN Shopping. Part of the reason for this decision was to reduce the number of shopping services Microsoft offered, which included MSN Shopping, Windows Live Expo and Live Product Search. Microsoft's spokesperson stated that the beta testing was intended to obtain an insight into user behavior and the data would be incorporated into plans for future products. It was stated that user-created content from Windows Live Shopping beta (lists, guides, and reviews) would continue to be available on MSN Shopping.[2] Windows Live Shopping Guides was discontinued as part of the rebranding.

As MSN Shopping, the service aggregated millions of product offers from thousands of retailers, allowing users to search or browse for products. Searches could be sorted by relevance, popularity or by price (either ascending or descending). Refinements were available to allow the user to narrow the results set.[3][4][5][6]

Cashback program

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.

A screenshot of Bing Cashback homepage

The cashback service started in June 2006 as part of Jellyfish.com.[7] On October 2, 2007, Microsoft announced the purchase of Jellyfish.com with an estimated price of $50 million.[8][9] 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.[10]

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.[11]

On April 14, 2009, Microsoft officially merged Cashback with the then Live Search Products.[12] On June 3, 2009, as 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.[13]

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

  1. ↑ "Find it Faster with Bing Product Search". Bing Blog. Microsoft. August 23, 2013.
  2. ↑ "Windows Live Shopping no more - MSN Shopping to remain". LiveSide. February 19, 2007. Archived from the original on February 22, 2007.
  3. ↑ Carr, Lisa (14 November 2005). "MSN Shopping Adds Comparison Shopping.". Direct Marketing.
  4. ↑ Rothberg, Deborah (21 July 2005). "Testers Check Out MSN Shopping Portal Beta 2.". PC Magazine.
  5. ↑ Gupta, Shankar (29 November 2006). "MSN Shopping Surges 21% Thanksgiving Weekend.". Media Post.
  6. ↑ Kane, Michelle (13 June 2005). "PriceGrabber.com Announces Strategic Alliance with MSN; PriceGrabber's Alliance with MSN Provides Consumers Expanded Selection on MSN Shopping.". Business Wire.
  7. ↑ Worthy, Buzz (July 1, 2007). "At This Auction Site, Prices (on Chickens, iPods, Etc.) Are Going, Going Down". Washington Post. Retrieved March 13, 2008.
  8. ↑ "Microsoft acquires Jellyfish.com". Official blog of Live Search team. October 2, 2007. Archived from the original on February 23, 2008. Retrieved 13 March 2008.
  9. ↑ "Microsoft buys Jellyfish comparison-shopping search engine". ZDNet. CBS Interactive. October 1, 2007. Archived from the original on October 6, 2007. Retrieved March 18, 2008.
  10. ↑ "Microsoft adds cashback search". BBC News Online. BBC. 21 May 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2008.
  11. ↑ "You asked for it: instant cashback!". Live Search team blog. Microsoft. December 1, 2008. Archived from the original on December 3, 2008.
  12. ↑ "Saving Money Just Got a Little Bit Easier". Bing Blog. Microsoft. April 15, 2009.
  13. ↑ "A Farewell to Bing cashback". Bing Blog. Microsoft. June 4, 2010.
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