Blingo’s Now Sucko
WTF? Blingo suddenly switched over to Yahoo! Search, Live Search, and Ask from Google. The results are terrible, and it’s not showing the full URL anymore. I typed in “Dairy Queen” earlier, for example, and got the Canadian website. Ugh. Is it worth putting up with a crappy search engine in order to win prizes? This is a tough one.
March 28th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
I have to agree. Even though the “metasearch” model might seem like a good idea, since you’re getting results from multiple search engines, the fact that Blingo returned results from Google was it’s main advantage for getting people to use it. Also the fact that it obfuscates the URLs in the results you search make it even more annoying.
The next best thing is probably Winzy. They get their results from Ask, so it’s not that great, but at least the format is much easier. The only thing I’ve won from them is a $5 Amazon gift certificate, but still not too shabby.
http://www.winzy.com/pogue
March 29th, 2008 at 10:55 am
Hey … I noticed this to! All the sudden my blingo results really sucked! Searching for adsense brings up a link to gmail for instance. Not fun at all… They need to return to the way it was!
March 29th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Blingo Update…
Hey… I did recommend Blingo to you the other day. I like the idea, search for something and you have a random chance to win something. The other day they were giving a prize away every 5 minutes! Wow.
But … there’s always a but, isn&#…
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:52 pm
i use SwagBucks.com its a search and win powered by Google. I’ve won a few giftcards and generally like the results better here than on Winzy.
April 12th, 2008 at 9:41 am
I use http://www.iRazoo.com. There searches are pretty good and they award points and rewards.
May 24th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Ah ha! Now we’ve discovered what’s happened to the Google search on Blingo. A new update in the Blingo Buzz Blog reveals that Publishers Clearing House (PCH) is starting their own “new” search engine, which looks identical to Blingo. It can be found at PCHsearch.com. The new search opens June 1st, so I’m going to wait and see if I can find someone to sign up under in exchange for some other referral site.
But, you’ll notice the first search engine listed under “Powered by” below the form you fill in to search is GOOGLE!. The site’s look so similar that I am willing to bet that PCH will close Blingo and switch users over to their new search once it’s up and running. I just hope it doesn’t start to turn into a major flop with tons of banner ads, pop-ups, and phoney million dollar mega jackpot bonuses all over the place - not to mention a trying to turn it into a portal and not just a place to search and win prizes (remember iWon.com?)
Oh well, maybe SwagBucks and iRazoo have potential. I guess I’ll have to check them out.
pogue
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:41 am
Hey — I’m Todd Sloane, Senior Vice President of Publishers Clearing House. Let me explain to you what’s going on. You’re right, PCH Search & Win is identical to Blingo — only better. For example, there will be more chances to win at PCH Search & Win. Blingo will still be up and running, but we’re featuring PCH Search & Win to our network of PCH users who are familiar and more responsive to the PCH brand. Don’t worry, there will not be any banner ads, pop-ups, or “phoney million dollar jackpot bonuses all over the place.” (You will automatically get chances to win our big SuperPrize when you search — just like you did at Blingo — in fact at PCH Search & Win you’ll get more chances. We also won’tbe turning it into a portal (yes we remember Iwon.com.)
It’s just what we say it will be — everything you love about Blingo and more (the more being more chances and more prizes). Hope you check it out.
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Why was my reply removed?
June 11th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Sadly, it seems that the Refer-A-Friend prize winning is completely gone from PCH Search.
“everything you love about Blingo and more”? Um, the “winning what your referrals win” part was what *I* loved about Blingo. That’s where I got 99% of my prizes. So much for the “everything”.