Why does only some of my searches give my points on Microsoft Rewards?

Even waiting 10 seconds does not work. I get zero points now.

I can search, read an article from the search results, go back, search something new, read another article and still not get any points.

Same here. I've noticed I have to wait for a fully loaded page before searching again on PC. My mobile searches aren't even reflected anymore. I've been a faithful Microsoft advocate for about 20 years because they were always on the up and up, less of that shady stuff like other companies practice. But this kind of thing is disgraceful, using tactics to slow us down? You want searches and we're searching, using our valuable time, all to what? Be told we're not doing it right? How can you not search correctly? A search is a search, and I feel like this is a very underhanded move to make, and I never in a thousand years thought that Microsoft would be doing anything that reminded me of those classic shady Sony moves. Shame on the people who thought this was a good idea. If my time isn't valuable to them, then theirs won't be to me either.

Like everybody here, points were harder to earn with searches. This also coincided with my auto redeem for game pass not going through. Was told my account may not fully align with performing searches outlined in the microsoft service agreement. Told to run meaningful searches without the use of an automated tool? Geez. I simply look up stories on my phone and then on the PC later.

Microsoft recently made changes to their reward point system. It seems that there is now a cool down for 15 minutes after 3 searches, i.e. 12 points every 15 minutes. This change was pretty unfortunate, but perhaps they did it so that people won't use any python scripts to automate the searches, thereby getting them more points.