When Microsoft announced it was going to pay consumers who use its search engine to find and buy products, it seemed like a desperate attempt to increase Microsoft's share of the search market.

But the Live Cashback program, which offers users rebates on purchases they made after using Microsoft search, seems to be working out for Microsoft.

TechCrunch has the latest comScore numbers, which show Microsoft's search volume increased 15 percent in the first month of the program. Those extra searches gave Microsoft a 9.2 percent share of the overall search market, up from 8.5 percent in the previous month. The small increase may be good news for Microsoft, but it hardly means the software giant is making inroads on Google, which still dominated the search market with a 65 percent share.