23 June 2009 | Author: K. Todd Search Copywriter

Microsoft turns eco-friendly to get users on Bing

A new competition by Microsoft is revealing the softer side of the computing giant as it announces prize money of $10,000 for the winning application in its Will Code for Green contest.

Developers are invited to code a new application for search engine Bing, conforming to Bing APIs, with the theme of "economy or ecology", a timely topic given the current push for ecological awareness in the corporate world, as well as the economic crisis currently taking place.

Applications must be designed to either benefit the environment or help people deal with the poor economy, with winners to be chosen at tech conference Gnomedex in August.

As The Register points out, the competition mirrors a similar campaign launched by Microsoft earlier this month in order to bring more users to its latest browser update, Internet Explorer 8. This venture sees the software giant donating the monetary equivalent of eight meals to US food banks for every download of the browser and is set to continue until August 8.

Despite the obvious charitable benefits Microsoft's tactics proffer, they are tactics nevertheless - the latter IE8 download campaign (called Browser for the Better) being a clear attempt to snatch back users from rival browsers like Mozilla's Firefox and Apple's Safari.

The new Will Code for Green competition could as easily be noted for its timing - conveniently close to the release of Bing, Microsoft's biggest challenge to Google search to date. What with the Mountain View search agency monopolising the world of search for the better part of a decade, it's no small feat for Microsoft to take it on yet again.

This time, however, a cunning marketing plan dubbing Bing a 'decision engine', as well as furtive attempts to take Google down piece by piece, could see Microsoft clocking up a legion of small successes which could, ultimately, see Bing become a main player in the future of search.