Here’s Why I Use Bing

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.

The latter is what I’ve been using the points for since I started using Bing in 2014. There are many businesses to choose from. Dunkin Donuts, Grubhub, Doordash, Starbucks, Taco Bell, Burger King, Hulu, and more. The best option in my opinion is Amazon.

Since I started using Bing, I’ve been able to redeem 34 Amazon gift cards. That’s about four gift cards per year just for doing web searches. The gift cards are available in $5 and $10 amounts, and they can be easily added to your Amazon account in a couple of clicks.

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Is It Worth it?

Here’s the big question you’re probably thinking: is it really worth it to use Bing for a couple of Amazon gift cards? I’ve earned $170 since 2014, which means I’m only getting “paid” around $20 per year to use Bing. I have to admit that’s not a lot.

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.

So is it worth it to use Bing? That’s entirely up to you. I’m not really going out of my way to do anything extra. I just go about my business and every once in a while I get some money to spend on Amazon. Give it a try if you don’t mind switching up your search engine habits.

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