OK, ignore that then. I assumed there wasn't such an option.

Oh you're just a @#$%^&^!  :P That's a reference so you earn bonus points! 

I'm already a Gold member, with over 4,000 Microsoft Points earned.  I go for the 400 MP cards.  I generally don't have to buy Microsoft Points anymore because Microsoft, between Xbox Rewards and Bing Rewards, gives them to me for free.

I generally use it to purchase DLC or XBLA games, though I've considered using it for other things.  My problem is that I like buying stuff on XBL, so I gravitate to the MP cards.

It used to be better, because you used to be able to earn 20 points a day via searches, plus bonuses.  The bonuses were insanely stupid, because Microsoft would give you a link to click on in order to obtain the bonus and often they were just searches on a given term or a link to one of their services.  Pretty much the same as they are today, but now they're a bit hidden.   Also, a long time ago, the bonuses and rewards were much more significant.  The bonuses might be for 10 points or such, Usually there was one of those per day.  They were extremely generous with the program.  And the amount of rewards were much greater.  You used to be able to redeem your Bing Reward Points for electronics, including consoles, and other stuff.  I think the reason they don't is because most people probably redeemed them on Microsoft Points and gift cards, so that's pretty much all that is available now.

One thing you didn't mention is the fact that Microsoft Points are instant.  Once you redeem your BRPs for a Microsoft Points gift card, you'll receive an e-mail with a code that you can then enter in and have instantly applied to your gamertag or Microsoft account.

Awesome post. Really gives you perspective on things such as time versus money.

Could you elaborate on point two (2). Especially the "a change in what is shown to you on shopping websites". How can they be connected to my search engine habits? I mean, if I go to let's say online game retailers or whatever, can my experience there be different depending on my Bing or Google search habits?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304458604577488822667325882.html

If MS was selling your data to third parties for marketing (which someone said you can opt out of), and this technique becomes mainstream, it may change what is shown to you. So, if you were searching for Apple products more, shops would show you collectors' editions instead of the normal version.

I'm trying to imagine why MS is paying you for your searches. If not for your information, are they literally just paying people to use them instead of Google?

Yeah, you're definitely on the right track. All that information of search habits is valuable to MS in a mutlitude of ways that you gave examples of.

Now, off topic but could you remind me of a thing I asked u before. YouTube money making. What was the number of views per video that you said was required to make a decent living off of YouTube? Was it 10K per day or could you survive on less views?

it's easy to find out, you just have to check it with bing lol^^

Optimistic is $5/1000 views. I doubt you'd get that without a Youtube Partnership though.

So 10k views/day would be $350/week, which would be slightly above US federal minimum wage which is $290/week.

But remember that viewership and ad rates are highly variable and you wouldn't want to rely on that income.

Cool. Yeah I understand you have to be a partner, but that's natural if you're in it for the money.

Here's some examples of YouTubers I follow. How do you think they do when it comes to living off of YT?

This guy does aquarium stuff, gets around 5-10K per video and he seems to consistantly do on average 1 video/day. Total is 3.5 mill views in +1 year. I know he has a daily regular job but he's a YT partner and I guess he makes good extra money off YT then?

http://www.youtube.com/user/Dustinsfishtanks?feature=CAwQwRs%3D

Thunderfoot. I bet many here knows who he is. 45 million views in five years. Sure he makes a good living off of YT right?

http://www.youtube.com/user/Thunderf00t?feature=CA4QwRs%3D

Same with ELPRESADOR, the famous game entertainer and COD commentator, right? 45 million lifetime views.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ELPRESADOR?feature=CBQQwRs%3D

The latter two, do they make real big money then?

I doubt it. Maybe $100k/year? But not like, more than a high level professional job. And in the case of the CoD guy, he must be putting far more than 40 hours a week in to achieve this, in making the content, keeping up with it, managing his business and so on.

Personally I think streaming or videos are a very poor way to make money. With those talents you can get yourself hired in a normal job for more. These people are doing what they do for the love of it and not for the money. Plus for every one of them there are 1000 Youtubers trying to be them and failing. 

It's exactly like trying to be an actor. The very few will make it but be putting in ridiculous hours that don't justify it, and the vast majority will not even make it that far.

all i know is that germany's most successful gaming youtuber "gronkh" makes probably good money with it. he has almost half a billion clicks and he has 150k click on average per video and is releasing 4-5 videos per day so around 700k clicks per day but since i would say he will get more clicks now as in the past it could be easily 1 million clicks per day for all his videos right now.