Microsoft announced yesterday that they are now offering cash back rebates to searchers using their Live Search engine to find and purchase products online:

A product search on Windows Live will call up links to online retailers offering that item. The user who buys that item from the retailer’s site will get 2 percent to 30 percent of the purchase price back as a rebate.

Consumers would have to sign up for a free Windows Live cashback account to participate in the program. Rebates would be issued after a 60-day waiting period to make sure there are no returned products.

It appears that a user has to create a cashback account on Microsoft’s site (headache #1 for user experience), then they have to search for a product, then they have to purchase based off a paid listing, at which point they will most likely have to enter their information again at the retailer site. On top of this clunky purchase cycle, the entire program just sounds like a HUGE management headache for Microsoft and ultimately, too little too late. The latest news keep pointing to a losing race. Yahoo says no, Google continues to dominate (62%), and Apple continues to take potshots at Microsoft. It just doesn’t seem like they can do much right lately.

Sorry Microsoft. You’re just too easy of a target. We’ll see if this guy can help at all.