As a way to promote its Bing search engine, Microsoft has launched its Holiday Song Giveaway. Each user who partakes can download one free song from Bing Music free of charge, up to a 500,000-person cap. Unusually, the company chose to use Amazon MP3 and not its own Zune Marketplace.

      The giveaway is limited to a track with a maximum value of $1.29 and one for each account; Microsoft sends out a gift code to claim the track. An Amazon account is required, and Microsoft's marketing focus for the giveaway comes through a required subscription to the Bing newsletter.

      The song codes need to be redeemed by January 24.

      Microsoft has regularly trailed behind Google and its now-partner Yahoo in search. The desire to take share from Google has led the Windows developer to lose hundreds of millions of dollars and take radical steps such as its Bing cashbacks, where Microsoft paid for discounts on devices and other products bought after a Bing search.

Source from electronista