New search engine site combines web searches with prizes
Blingo.com, a new search site that offers visitors the chance to win prizes, began its Internet service today after five months of beta testing. Blingo is powered by Google.
For each search on the site, visitors are given a chance to instantly win prizes that include Apple iPods, Amazon gift certificates, TiVo DVRs with a year subscription, Blockbuster subscriptions or fee movie tickets. Blingo notifies winners via a pop up screen, a spokesperson says. Winners are asked for an address and the prize gets mailed within a few days, she says.
The site also has added a new feature called Blingo Friends, in which a user wins a prize if a friend the consumer directed to the site wins one.
Blingo derives its revenues from sponsored links on its site.
Blingo doesn’t divulge specifics on the number of people using the site, the spokesperson says. But the company says it gave away nearly 2,000 prizes to Blingo users nationwide during the five-month test. A prize is awarded every 20 minutes, the spokesperson says.
Blingo has done no formal marketing of the site except for news releases, the spokesperson says.
Frank Anderson, Blingo’s CEO, formerly was vice president of business development at iAmaze. He also previously was an executive in the mergers and acquisitions unit at Hambrecht & Quist. Rob Davis, a contributer to the start-ups of Lighthouse Design, Netmosphere, and iAmaze, is vice president engineering.
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