Program lets shoppers Dash for rebates

Dash.com has signed deals with roughly 50 merchants who will offer rebates, specials and other incentives to consumers using the tool.

When users go to a member merchant's home page from a directory within a toolbar that sits below the browser, the software identifies them as Dash members to the merchant. If they make a purchase, the merchant sends their rebate to a special Dash account, where users can track their rewards. Dash cuts the consumer a check with their refunds on a regular basis.

The service also allows a merchant to flash notices about their rebates to consumers, based on the sites they are visiting. For example, Barnesandnoble.com (Nasdaq: BNBN) can flash a message about a five percent discount offer to users when they visit a competing bookseller, or type the word "books" into a search engine.

Dash is initially available only for the Internet Explorer browser, but the company is working on a Netscape version, officials said.