When it’s time to go looking the net, roughly 85% of customers flip to Google. It’s such a prevalent search engine that we’ve turned its utilization right into a verb — Googling. However different choices can be found, and a few can pay you to make use of them.

Microsoft’s search competitor, Bing, holds a bit beneath 10% of the market, however when you determine to change, you’ll discover improbable advantages. Due to Microsoft Rewards, you possibly can earn factors to redeem reward playing cards each time you search.

Let’s take a break from Google and dive into Bing to see how one can reap the rewards from a few of your favourite firms, together with the Microsoft Retailer, Starbucks, Amazon and Grubhub.

What Is the Microsoft Rewards Program?

Microsoft Rewards is the software program large’s loyalty program, which presents advantages in change for utilizing companies resembling Bing or Microsoft Edge. As you employ particular Microsoft merchandise, you’ll earn factors that may then be redeemed for choose rewards. Reward playing cards are our favourite providing and can be found for a big selection of locations resembling:

• Microsoft Retailer
• Xbox Video games
• Starbucks
• Burger King
• Domino’s
• Sephora
• Goal
• Walmart
• Hulu
• Dunkin’ Donuts
• Amazon.com
• REI
• Taco Bell
• Grubhub
• DoorDash
• Uber Eats
• Spotify

If reward playing cards aren’t your factor, you possibly can enter sweepstakes for extra elaborate prizes, resembling a brand-new Xbox Sequence X, a Microsoft Floor Professional pill, a $5,000 Amazon reward card and even an opportunity to satisfy WNBA star Rhyne Howard. Charitable donations are additionally an choice when you really feel beneficiant together with your reward factors.

The right way to Earn Microsoft Rewards Factors

Incomes factors with Microsoft Rewards is straightforward. Go to Bing.com and guarantee that you’re logged in with a Microsoft account — you are able to do so by clicking on the profile icon within the higher proper nook.

As soon as logged in, you’ll discover an award icon on the high of the Bing homepage; your profile and a notification icon flank it. The award icon will notify you of what number of factors you might have earned and the way shut you’re to your aim.

Click on on the award icon to see a breakdown of what number of factors you earned and extra actions you possibly can participate in to earn factors. You may earn 150 factors a day utilizing Bing in your PC, 100 factors a day utilizing Bing in your smartphone and 20 factors for using the Microsoft Edge internet browser.

In our testing, we discovered that each internet search we carried out awarded us a further 5 factors. In the event you’re a pupil or somebody who incessantly conducts analysis utilizing a search engine, you’ll earn factors fairly quickly.

We additionally advocate collaborating in these further every day actions that we talked about are accessible by clicking on the award icon. To see an entire checklist of every day duties which you can full, click on in your dashboard for all the small print. We discovered it straightforward to earn factors (almost 150 further) by clicking on hyperlinks and taking brief quizzes — no electronic mail handle required.

The right way to Redeem Microsoft Rewards Factors

There isn’t a level in incomes Microsoft Rewards factors when you aren’t going to make use of them. By heading to your Rewards Dashboard (aka the rewards web page) and clicking on the Redeem tab on the high of the web page, you possibly can “money in” your factors for prizes — it’s identical to being on the arcade!

We discovered three main rewards accessible from this system: reward playing cards, sweepstakes and donations. With reward playing cards, you’re cashing in a voucher to one in all your favourite firms or companies (what might be higher than free espresso?). We discovered that almost all $5 reward playing cards (5,000 factors) will be acquired after just a few weeks of looking the online as you usually would possibly.

Alternatively, you possibly can enter a sweepstakes to win a extra elaborate prize.

Donating to charity is a 3rd choice for these with a coronary heart of gold. You may donate your factors, which Microsoft will convert right into a money donation, to a charitable group. Some notable organizations accessible embody Train for America, the Nature Conservancy, the Trevor Challenge and St. Jude Kids’s Analysis Hospital.

Need to give to your favourite charities mechanically? By visiting the Give with Bing web page, you possibly can set your account as much as mechanically have earned rewards factors donated. If you wish to promote your trigger, Bing may even enable you create free promotional materials.

Is Bing Higher Than Google?

In the event you’ve seen an advert for Bing, you’ll have taken a second to wonder if it’s a viable different to Google. Microsoft Rewards is a compelling solution to transfer Googlers over into the world of Microsoft, however customers received’t keep lengthy until the search engine delivers outcomes.

We’ve examined Google and Bing for fairly a while and have discovered that each serps carry out about equally with basic searches. Google tends to have a bonus in our testing in relation to surfacing solutions for extra area of interest subjects. Nonetheless, each supply a stable on a regular basis search expertise for the everyday person.

Microsoft Rewards could also be a tempting supply to change over to Bing and earn factors; we don’t suppose you’ll have many regrets when you do. We particularly benefit from the every day Bing picture, which is an aesthetically pleasing different to Google’s plain homepage.

In the event you want to evaluate Google vs. Bing facet by facet, take a look at a web site like bvsg.org, which helps you to see exactly what every search engine will floor for a question. The outcomes would possibly shock you.

Regularly Requested Questions (FAQ)

Michael Archambault is a senior author with The Penny Hoarder specializing in know-how.