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Free Skype credit for using the Bing tool bar

by Mark Tyson on 30 March 2012, 12:00

Tags: Skype, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

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Great news for US-based Skype fans was announced on the Bing Blog a few days' ago. For the minimal effort/hassle of installing the Bing Bar and registering for Bing Rewards you can get some credit that can be used for those Skype services tight-fisted users such as yours truly refuses to consider purchasing.

Last year, when MS acquired Skype, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said; "By bringing together the best of Microsoft and the best of Skype, we’ll deliver amazing new experiences for consumers and business around the world."We are still waiting for amazing, however while we wait, getting free credit for a genuinely useful service, like Skype, is not to be sniffed at. Skype is a great free computer and smartphone app for voice/video calling via Internet data usage, and it is practically free to any other user of the program anywhere in the world. The credit offered for free, from using the Bing Bar, extends this service very usefully to;
If this offer was available in the UK we would jump on it, if only for the convenience of the free texts and talk on those occasions when our contacts abroad aren't reachable via Skype on their computer/mobile. Bing Rewards in the US also offer credits with e-tailers such as Amazon, Xbox Live and Hulu. So, please, Microsoft, come good on your around-the-world promise shortly.

Bing Bar US and UK, spot the difference
Bing Bar US and UK, spot the difference! Also no rewards for non-US folk.

For users outside the US who don't get the rewards the toolbar isn't nearly as fully featured, so there is much less incentive to install it. On a personal note I am very protective of my vertical pixels, even though I run on a 1,600x1,200 monitor so I have no tool bars on constantly, I imagine widescreen users are even more so. In short I would be happy to be offered more vertical option toolbar choice. What about you?


HEXUS Forums :: 5 Comments

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I would be very interested if this happened in the UK. I do not have a landline phone so use Skype instead and i think i could suffer a toolbar for some free credit. Lets hope it comes here :)
They are going to have to pay me to put that crap on my browser.
They'd have to offer me a lot more than Skype credit for having that installed………..
Still, you couldn't pay me to use Bing.
Agreed with shaithis and Scribe, don't like Bing or annoying toolbars.