Looking to draw fresh users into the arms of Live Search, Microsoft on Wednesday announced a half-year contest in which users can exchange clicks for tickets, and tickets for various goodies.

The SearchPerks contest, which launched Wednesday, is open to 250,000 respondents for now, though Microsoft says that it could open the gates to as many as a million if there's interest (its site's legalese says it's already expecting 1,000,000). Participants earn a "ticket" for using Windows Live, MSN, or Live Search -- up to 25 tickets every day. The contest is slated to run through April 15, 2009.

SearchPerks ticket accumulation requires participants to use IE 6.0 or later and to have a Windows Live account. The contest also requires that users download and install a Perk Counter that marks the number of searches they undertake daily, the types of searches (e.g., news or images), and whether online ads get clicked.

That's all the data the counter's collecting, according to a Microsoft spokesperson. "The Perk Counter does not record the search terms participants search for, which Web sites they visit or the content of the ads they click on," the spokesperson told BetaNews.

Microsoft expects a distinct uptick in usage during its contest, citing in-house research showing that participants in the pre-launch pilot program averaged three times as many searches once they'd joined.

But even the most diligent searchers may find that when it's time to redeem tickets for prizes, the math might not add up. If a searcher signed up today (October 1) and gained the maximum 25 tickets/day every day between now and April 15 of next year, she or he would earn 4,925 tickets. An additional sign-up bonus of 500 tickets pushes that maximum total to 5,425. Impressive, and according to the prize pages that's enough for anything from various Xbox 360 games to 56 music downloads to 3000 frequent-flyer miles... but still not enough for the Xbox 360 controller featured on the rewards page, which costs 5,500 tickets.

According to the SearchPerks site, additional point-garnering opportunities may be offered during the contest, to be awarded after it concludes.

Microsoft's not the only online giant launching a content to boost the love on the cusp of the holiday season. Yahoo today launched its "Start Riding Purple" competition, an essay contest for which the prize is a grape-colored, Yahoo-branded Elektra Townie bike, complete with GPS, a geo-tagging camera, and a Flickr Pro account.