Thursday, June 05, 2014

Why Bing Is My Default Search Engine

Two words: Bing Rewards (yes, it's an affiliate link -- if you use it, I get points!).

I am an apostle of and evangelist for nearly all things Google -- my computers are Chromebooks and Chromeboxes, my main email address is @gmail.com, I store my stuff on Google Drive, etc., etc., etc.

BUT! Bing Rewards.

When I search using Google, I get search results. When I search using Bing, I get search results and rewards points which I can redeem for gift cards at major online and offline stores and entries into various prize drawings.

I've bought books with my Bing Rewards  points.

I've bought pizza with my Bing Rewards points.

I've bought nothing at all with my Google Rewards points, because there's no such thing. OK, well, there are Google Play Rewards, and I do use Google Play every once in awhile, but the rewards points are available only via an Android app and I use Android something like twice a year when I forget how useless tablets really are for anything except reading ebooks.

So whenever I am casually searching, I do it by typing the search term into my (Google Chrome!) browser's URL-bar, which is hooked to Bing, and I rack up points.

Yes, I still use Google every now and again if I don't immediately find what I want through Bing or if I'm doing some kind of industrial-strength organized searching, but Bing is my first line of search because Bing Rewards.

So far as I know, this is the only area in which Google has ever, ever, ever lagged Microsoft.

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