New Qantas Toolbar - Earn Bonus Points just for searching

[Birdblack]

That's thegrey hairs making decisions
Just like they launched the super Qantas app on Windows mobile first. Really weird.

When Microsoft picks up the cost to develop the App why would you say no?

 

[moa999]

And for the developer....

If you repeat the same search twice you get a popup saying an invalid search.
Which directs to a webpage at client.freecause.com

that includes the following identifiers:
ToolID: ######
Userid: ### | Session User: ##QFNum@@
Version: Qantas Frequent Flyer Toolbar 1.301.1

Domain FreeCause : Home forwards to www.rakutenloyalty.com

 

[anat0l]

Is that all

Just thinking all our friends have Apple can't think of one that doesn't.

I guess we're not quite friends yet, so as a PC user, I can safely say, "sucked in". :mrgreen:


Seriously though, I thought it would just be a browser thing - why wouldn't the toolbar not work on Mac running Firefox, unless it needs extra permissions or something else. It should and would work like any other extension. If I were running Firefox on *nix I would not expect any problems either.

I'll probably install it on Chrome and give it a light treatment. At least I can somewhat "sandbox" my dabbling in a browser I don't use much.

 

[bismarck]

I'll probably install it on Chrome and give it a light treatment. At least I can somewhat "sandbox" my dabbling in a browser I don't use much.

Have adopted the same approach, installed on IE and will occasionally give it a bit of attention for stupid searches.

 

[dajop]

Used to have one of these for UA, and another for US airways, were handy to keep points from expiring. They both discontinued them and the point earning from toolbar searches a few months ago.

 

[NoName]

Any idea how long it takes for the points to be credited to your account?

 

[harvyk]

This might be relevant to your interests:
A Face Is Exposed for AOL Searcher No. 4417749 - NYTimes.com

AOL search data leak - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Essentially, AOL released a bunch of raw search data for research purposes. A key, unintentional finding of the research was that it's often very easy to look at an individual's internet search history and figure out their real identity.

It's certainly interesting, it does make the assumption that all searches are done via the one service. The interesting thing here was that they traced back the person (in this case Ms Arnold) they got their facts about that person very wrong (Ms Arnold is a non smoker, but her searches would indicate that she was trying to give up, this is because she did searches on behalf of friends).

The other thing is that AOL has a distinct advantage over something like google, AOL already know who you are, you've signed up to their service and given over your credit card details. With google I simply come in as an anonymous user from an IP address (which could even be shared among 25,000 people) and they have no real way of tracking down a search result from 139.130.3.76 is related to a search result from 203.62.76.13 (both numbers are ones which I've made up). Of course if you sign into google services from both addresses you are giving google a much better chance of tracking you down.

 

[Pinkmoose]

Installed, logged in, did a search, logged out, and uninstalled.

Thanks for the heads up Pinkmoose

No Problem. Always glad to share the love around

 

[Limewood]

I guess we're not quite friends yet, so as a PC user, I can safely say, "sucked in". :mrgreen:

yep few zillion of us, ah well could always instal windoze on my Apples (not).

 

[Anna]

I'm going to do 150 searches a month on "why did qantas dump adelaide" and "direct flights adelaide to singapore".

 

[Industrial]

I installed on Firefox which is not my default browser, did some searches and got 350 points in 20 minutes for my troubles. Deciding if I should leave it installed now.

 

[Pinkmoose]

I'm going to do 150 searches a month on "why did qantas dump adelaide" and "direct flights adelaide to singapore".

Someone is a little upset that they cancelled ADL-SIN flights?
I thought you might be happy to take a detour through SYD/MEL and ear some more FF points or SCs?

 

[Mr_Orange]

Thanks for this. Seems like a quick and easy 200 bonus points.

 

[Anna]

Someone is a little upset that they cancelled ADL-SIN flights?
I thought you might be happy to take a detour through SYD/MEL and ear some more FF points or SCs?

No, not happy to double my journey time through SYD/MEL. If QF is going to use my searches to market to me, I may as well steer them in the direction of marketing me something that I want from them

 

[burmans]

With cache clearing/ private mode etc... you can be anonymous on google.
Even if being tracked they still only know you as an id...

Here you are logging into your Qantas account... They know your name, address etcc.... and what you search for.

Very different.

Anyhow just earned a few points when searching for info about the Velocity Program ---

Of course, but if you use the tool to search for rubbish (as I just did) and get points what exactly have they found out about you?

 

[pippy]

I just downloaded and signed in for myself and earned a few points and signed out and signed in Mrpippy as well, hopong we will both get the bonus for installing and using, and now I am going to sign in for our daughter who doesnt earn points very often and leave her there for searches. It will be a good way to keep her points from expiring as she rarely earns points except for infrequent flying.

 

[tyrolean]

Would not be the first toolbar I've installed, taken the points, then removed....

I installed it on my Firefox Browser. I rarely use it. My main browser does not like the toolbar!
So quite safe to install it in a secured sandbox.

 

[Mal]

In Firefox it is simple to install and then disable through the add-on settings, enabling "when required".

BTW. I think AFF must be the biggest user base..

 

[whatmeworry]

LOL I think I tricked the system.

Your search was deemed invalid and did not qualify for earning a reward

---

This could have been for the following reasons:

• You are in a country that is not eligible to earn rewards
• Your search query was nonsensical or yielded no actual results
• Your query originated from an automated process or macro
• Your search patterns reflect that you are not actually using this service for results

IMPORTANT NOTE
We use sophisticated algorithms to determine valid searches in accordance with Yahoo! If you are not credited for your searches it means they have been flagged as invalid. Please understand that the current status is not permanent. You will receive credit for your searches if you continue to search naturally throughout your day.

 

[moa999]

a double search is a big trick!