The order of business for the three major search engines this coming Holiday Season is none other than  - Free Wi-Fi Internet access.  Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have recently announced their respective strategies in providing free Internet access in various places. For both Yahoo and Google, it’s a totally free Wi-Fi Internet access while Microsoft will be offering it with a catch.

Yahoo will be providing free WiFi in Times Square starting tomorrow and will last until next year. This is part of Yahoo’s campaign to be at the center of people’s online lives.

Google on the other hand earlier announced that it will be offering free WiFi Internet access on every flights of Virgin America during entire holiday season.  Interestingly, Google’s promo also starts tomorrow.

Now, here’s a rather wicked deal – Microsoft is also offering free WiFi Internet access at participating hot spots designated by both Microsoft and its partner in this endeavor, JiWire mobile advertising company. The deal is, the free WiFi access will be granted in exchange for one web search, using Bing.  Obviously, this is part of Microsoft’s continued marketing campaign for Bing. According to MediaPost report, that one search is part of Microsoft’s awareness campaign for Bing.

So which has the better deal?  Google’s offer  seem fair enough while Microsoft is wickedly conceptualized although it might work somehow.  But the best deal is of course Yahoo’s one-year free WiFi Internet access at Times Square. Would have been better if other places were included also.

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Search Engines Battle for Users via Free WiFi

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 9th, 2009 at 10:39 pm and is filed under Search News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.