Microsoft to Pay Web Searchers
As noted in Jon Battelle’s blog from this morning…
According to this InfoWorld article, Microsoft is planning to share advertising revenue with its search engine users:
“Gates said that search engines like Google Inc. get their revenues from advertising because people use these search engines. ‘Google’s business model is not based on free software,’ Gates said. ‘Their business model is based on advertisements from which they make a lot of money.’
But they don’t share these advertising revenues with the end users who help them get the revenue, Gates said. “Google keeps all of the money with itself,” he added.
…
In its bid to share revenues with users, Microsoft may give free software or even cash to users, said Gates, who did not discuss further details.”