From The Guardian:
The newly rebranded Microsoft Rewards – formerly Bing Rewards, which paid people for using Bing as their search engine (another product Microsoft says is better than a Google product but that very few people actually use) – will now pay you for using Edge, shopping at the Microsoft store, or using Bing.
Users of Edge who sign up to Microsoft Rewards, which is currently US-only, are then awarded points simply for using the browser. Microsoft actively monitors whether you’re using Edge for up to 30 hours a month. It tracks mouse movements and other signs that you’re not trying to game the system, and you must also have Bing set as your default search engine.
[...]
Whether paying people really works, or whether people really want to be tracked in their computer usage down to the nth degree – or to be made aware that they already are at least – remains to be seen.
Pathetic? Desperate? You betcha!
It bears repeating that this "new" rewards program is just an expansion and relabeling of an existing Bing promotion... one that wasn't working. There's a reason why people just say "Googling," rather than "internet searching," or "Bing-ing" (definitely not the same as "binging"). Microsoft has been trying to bribe users to use Bing for years, now, with the predictable result that they're all still using Google.
Repeating the same actions, while anticipating a different outcome... I feel like there's a word for that...
Worse, Microsoft's new Edge/Bing bribery program throws a bright, hot spotlight on one of Windows 10's other features: the total lack of privacy enjoyed by Windows 10 Home users. Yes, Microsoft must monitor your every every mouse movement to ensure that you're not gaming the Rewards system for "vouchers or credit for places such as Starbucks, Skype, Amazon and ad-free Outlook.com," thus reminding everyone that Windows 10 is already doing this.
But wait: it gets still worse! Because it's not going to work this time, either. And not because Edge is a bad browser, but simply because Edge was lacking basic features of a modern browser (like extensions) when it launched -- people tried Edge, realized it had less functionality than the browsers they were already using, and switched back. After that, it's extremely unlikely that they'll be willing to switch yet again, to give another chance to a product that's already disappointed them once.
You only get one chance to make a first impression; Edge failed to do this when it mattered, and this latest attempt at bribery (with a heaping helping of creepiness) is unlikely to convince people to give Edge a second try. The 58% of internet users who use Chrome seem to be pretty satisfied with their browser, and they're probably sick of hearing about it by now.