People often call me a “techie.” I know the latest version of Android, how many cameras the new iPhone has, and I actually care about the taskbar in Windows 11. So how can a person like me use Bing on purpose?
The popular opinion of Bing is…not good. I don’t know anyone—especially those in the tech community—who chooses to use Bing. Google is obviously the top choice, DuckDuckGo is probably the second place. Yet here I am doing searches on Bing.com every day. What gives?
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Microsoft Pays Me to Use Bing
You might be expecting some elaborate explanation about how Bing is actually fine and maybe even better than Google. Well, it’s actually a lot simpler than that. Microsoft pays me to use Bing. In fact, it could pay you to use Bing, too.
Microsoft Rewards—sometimes called “Bing Rewards”—is a reward system that Microsoft has had for quite a while. The concept is very simple. You log in with your Microsoft account and can earn points by performing various tasks.
The easiest way to earn points is by doing web searches with Bing. There’s nothing special to it. Just use Bing like you would any other search engine and you’ll slowly accumulate points without thinking about it. Most of the time I forget I’m even using Bing.
What Are the Points For?
Alright, so I earn points for doing Bing searches, but what do I do with these points? There are actually quite a few ways you can redeem the points. You can enter contests to win prizes, donate money to charities, and get gift cards.
Is It Worth it?
That may not be enough for you to justify using Bing. For me, it’s really not a big deal. I only use Bing on my computer, not my phone. The vast majority of the time, I find what I’m looking for right away. Search engines are all pretty decent these days.
Bing has some cool features, but it isn’t perfect. I would never try to claim it’s better than Google, but it’s not that much worse. Sometimes I do need to use Google, which is why I have this handy extension that puts a shortcut in the Bing results.
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