Bing Cashback

Microsoft announced Friday that it will shut down the Bing Cashback feature effective July 30, due to lack of interest.

"After a couple of years of trying, we did not see the broad adoption that we had hoped for," Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of Microsoft's online audience business group, wrote in a blog post.

Bing Cashback debuted in May 2008 as Live Search Cashback. It offered users cash back on purchases made through the Microsoft search engine. The feature attracted more than 1,000 merchant partners, but that did not translate into users.

"We are taking all the learning from the effort and putting it into some new programs for you and our advertisers designed to provide amazing shopping experiences for consumers and great opportunities for advertisers," Mehdi wrote.

He promised more details on those programs later this summer.

For current users, it's "business as usual" until 9pm Pacific time on July 30, he said. After that, the service will discontinue, but users will have one year to redeem earned cashback. Microsoft will also provide 12 months of customer support.