Blingo

A simple-to-use web search engine, Blingo is based on Google. Sponsored ads pay for the prizes. Latest prize winners are displayed in colorful real-time tickers. Bling, bling, bling.

Hundreds of prizes

Blingo is using good marketing techniques to keep people coming back for more. They claim to give away thousands of prizes. It isn't a scam, because I guess they really do give away something. Just look at the banner!

blingo-banner

Cutting through the marketing spiel, however, victory is invariably yours in the form of a dirty great big expensive (cue the drum roll, unfurl the red carpet) - cinema ticket. A pass to a movie, smashing.

Others have received an iTunes certificate and...

Blingo Blog

The blog is a good source of info on the Blingo paid-to-search web phenomenon. For instance, the "your name needs" meme was quite a successful way of proving that you can get proper results out of a Blingo search.

We input Ed needs and the answer was: Ed needs a Hummer! Well, I can say I would be too embarrassed to drive one of those monstrosities, but at least it is an idea of what to ask for Christmas. And as for the Ed, he has a long wait till Hummer day.

If you have reviewed or blogged about Blingo, please contact Ed.and I will incorporate a link to it.

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K Fed search

Kevin spoon fed Federline has joined the paid to search game. Just like Meatloaf and countless other stars of the stage and scream, the dancing buffoon is tapping into the Prodégé experience.

Any marketer will tell you that it is easy to milk fans if you have famous people involved in any half decent / half baked promotion,! The Prodege business model milks the street cred of a star! They use their name and a few crap pieces of memorabilia to tempt the star's fanbase (and the fans' families) into swapping from Google to a paid web search bar endorsed by the star.

It doesn't matter than K-Fed, for instance, has no interest in the Prodege product, and that he still Googles Britney, bald and beautiful and that his prizes are hand-me-downs from his former has-been/returning pop star spouse. As long as his name is on the Prodege search bar and he adds an old tee-shirt and a scratchy old CD out the cupboard to a handful of sweepstake tickets for a birthday party, everyone is happy.

Prodege earn the money to run the show by selling sponsored ads at the top of the search results. So in Kev's case, they attract ads from any company selling tat for 13 year old, slightly chubby, fashion-conscious single mothers.

Win with Kevin web search engine. Is there any sentiment more sickly sweet?

Others' opinions

It is always good to hear different views, if only to give you a perspective on the correctness of your opinion!

One blogger, The Kevin, is 17 years old and bright. So brainy in fact that his left testicle is smarter than the other Kev's whole being - ie him combined with the full contents of bald Britney's head. He has taken a look at the deal from afar and is not too impressed by the Prodégé team. He says:

Prodege, on their site, claims, "PRODÉGÉ is the first socially-conscious search engine." Huh?

Essentially, he doesn't like the fact that the Protege portal and the other Kev, are making money off of Yahoo's search engine. Shoddy Web 2.0ism at work.

Fair enough deduction, but, oh well, mash-ups are the name of the game these days, ask Yahoo!

If you have reviewed or blogged about K Fed search or Prodege, please contact Ed.and I will incorporate a link to it.