Blingo Buzz: Features

Windows users who are trying Microsoft's new Internet Explorer 7 beta will be glad to know that you can now add Blingo to the search box at the top of every window. And you don't need to install any toolbars, either, thanks to a nice new search feature in IE7.

To add Blingo to your search box, just visit our Toolbars & Plugins page. There you'll find three simple steps, and in about 60 seconds tops, you'll have Blingo at your fingertips.

If you want to add "Step 4: do a little jig" we will understand completely.

If you've been paying attention to our home page you've probably noticed that we added a new prize this month: a portable DVD player. We've already given a few of them away, but don't worry — there are more in the mix.

This thing is cool. It's smaller and lighter than a laptop so you can take it with you on a road trip or in the air, and it even has two headphone jacks so you can share it with a friend.

Of course if you win a portable DVD player but don't want it or already have one, you can choose to receive a Visa Gift Card instead. That's an option on all of our larger prizes. Our smaller prizes have options too: if you win a movie ticket you can take an iTunes gift certificate instead, and vice-versa. It's the Blingo way.

Do you ever search for something and get way more results than you can possibly sort through? Maybe you should refine your search.

Scroll down to the bottom of your search results and click "Search within these results."

Here's how it works. When you search the Internet for "camera," Blingo looks at everything in its index to find pages that mention cameras. That's a lot of pages! But when you click "Search within these results" and enter "digital," Blingo will do another search, but this time it will look only at the pages you already found to see if any of them also contain the word "digital."

Cool, huh? You can keep refining your search until you find what you're looking for. Of course those of you who are power searchers know how to do this without clicking "Search within these results," but some people prefer a nice, clean way of narrowing their searches.

Try it! As we say in the search business, it's like refining oil but not as messy or aromatic.

One of the nifty little features in Blingo Friends is the ability to see Blingo Winners near you. Just enter your zip code and you'll see 10 recent Blingo Winners near you plus the total number of winners within 100 miles.

Here's what it looks like for Philadelphia:

Wow. 934 winners within 100 miles of Philadelphia.

To see for yourself just change the zipcode on your My Friends page (Join Blingo Friends here if you're not a member).

For those of you who've won a movie ticket (or if you'd just like to know if you can use Blingo Movie Tickets near you) we've added a theater locator to the site. Check it out here.

Starting right now, we're replacing the iPod Mini with the new iPod Nano. If you haven't seen it yet, here it is.

It may be the coolest iPod yet.

If you're lucky enough to win a bigger prize (like an iPod), you'll soon have the option to choose this instead:

The card is good anywhere Visa is accepted so you can choose your own prize (it comes pre-loaded with the value of your prize). You'll get it faster, it's ready to use (no activation), and you can still show off your prize.

If you'd like to put a link to your Blingo Friends group on your blog or website we now have some nice little Blingo Buttons for you. Here are a couple samples: