Blogwatch: Feb. 27, 2006
To promote its search engine, MSN announced a "Search and Win" contest, hoping to entice users with the prospect of a prize in every search. Inspired geeks like OILMAN cracked the source code to learn that the contest works by linking specific terms to prizes--a "Starbucks locations" search might yield a Starbucks gift card; he posted all 1,165 terms. MAKE YOU GO HMM dubbed the contest "Sit and Spin," scolding, "This is not how to get more people to use your search." Determined, THREADWATCH.ORG wrote a program that sent a keyword through the system 4,122 times. The booty: a Home Depot gift card.
Most Popular »
- Prehistoric Super-Crocodiles May Have Dined on Dinosaurs
- The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting
- Amid Concern About India's Lost Clout, Singh Goes to Washington
- Woman Loses Benefits over Facebook Photo
- Toilets
- The Fall of Greg Craig, Obama's Top Lawyer
- Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin
- Can the A380 Bring the Party Back to the Skies?
- The Political Fallout of Egypt's Soccer War
- Man in Coma Heard Everything for 23 Years
- The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting
- Will Private Equity Be the Next Meltdown?
- Prehistoric Super-Crocodiles May Have Dined on Dinosaurs
- Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin
- How One Army Town Copes With Post- Traumatic Stress
- Can the A380 Bring the Party Back to the Skies?
- The Fall of Greg Craig, Obama's Top Lawyer
- Toilets
- Man in Coma Heard Everything for 23 Years
- Female Sexual Dysfunction: Myth or Malady?
Quotes of the Day »
ROLF-DIETER HEUER, CERN's director general, on the Large Hadron Collider smashing proton beams together for the first time
Quotes of the Day »
ROLF-DIETER HEUER, CERN's director general, on the Large Hadron Collider smashing proton beams together for the first time
RSS