Winzy is a search engine with a different concept: beyond its standard, familiar way of allowing you to search the internet as if you used Google or Yahoo, Winzy has a comprehensive sponsor system that allows them to give away prizes at random. In essence, each search you perform could trigger a prize screen. No matter what, you always win something if this happens - even if it's Winzy points, which boost your chance of winning the end-of-month raffle for an Apple iPhone, XBOX 360, or the grand prize of $100,000 cash.

To try Winzy for yourself, visit Winzy and follow the directions. When you get your first win, you will not be able to claim anything unless you've created a free account (don't worry, it will ask you to do so immediately afterwards).

The Winzy search engine results page:

• Upper right: This dialog window displays a random winner, what they've won, and how long ago they've won it.
• Right: The ad bar - this displays Winzy self-promotional ads, Ask.com contextual ads, and other FAQ/Help links.
• Center: The search engine results, powered by Ask.com. Winzy only displays the first 20 pages of a search result, unlike other search engines, which display hundreds. There is no current word about optimizing for Winzy search engine results pages - however, since it is powered by Ask.com, it can most likely only be done through DMOZ or one of its syndicates. This center area is also where the prize game may appear at random.

As a regular subscribed member, you'll earn 1 point per search on Winzy, and can earn them for 50 searches per day (converting to 50 points). Points are yours permanently - they cannot be given away to someone else, and are counted as raffle tickets for the end-of-month prize.

At the end of each month, all of your Winzy points are "taken" and put into the monthly raffle. Your points then re-set to zero. This happens each month.

Games are the focus of actually winning - once the winner's screen shows up, you'll be presented with one of two games (as seen below). You'll always win something, even if it's the minimum amount of points. These screens present a "Click to Spin" button, and they are notoriously slow (it takes a good 10 or more seconds for the game to begin after clicking).

For your first 20 searches of the day, you're subjected to seeing the prize screen. It's fairly common to win at least once a day - although the majority of your wins will be for Winzy points. The two games that pop up will either be a "Wheel of Fortune" styled game, or a 3-slots game called "Lucky 7's." Here are the prizes that you can win through natural daily searches:

• Winzy Points (increments of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500)
• Amazon $5, $10 Gift Certificate
• iTunes $5, $10 Gift Certificate
• iPod Shuffle
• iPod Nano

As a registered member, you can act as a referral and invite friends with specially-linked buttons and banners that you can put in your e-mail footer, blog or website. Each friend you invite earns you 250 points, and the ability to win whatever they win. So, if referred friend #1 and referred friend #5 win 200 Winzy points, you automatically win 400. If referred friend #5 later wins an iPod Nano, you also win one. There is a 2-prize per month limit for non-Winzy point prizes.

Winzy is certainly a new concept in the realm of cool Web 2.0 style sites, and most definitely a groundbreaker in the search engine world. It is only rivaled to Blingo in the category of "search and win websites" - a competitor that gets vastly more hits per day, but offers much less (i.e., no "points" structure on Blingo, much higher improbability of ever winning anything). Winzy is a great daily application to try out - think of it as merely a free slew of lottery tickets that you can gather every day. Sign up for Winzy and give it a spin!

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