Can Your Web Searching Save the World?
Our friends at Worldchanging just turned me on to Ripple, a search engine site that’s fighting global poverty, one click at a time. It’s yet another example of a web 2.0 concept tweaking an everyday action into a force for good, and the brilliant simplicity of the idea has held a smile on my face all afternoon.
Working with their own slate of partners for change including Oxfam, WaterAid, Oak Tree and the Grameen Foundation, Ripple has created two innovative ways of turning clicks into aid for the world’s poor. The first harnesses the pay-per-click economy of affiliate search programs. Ripple’s Google-powered search site allows users to conduct ordinary searches, but with a twist: Ripple donates their portion of Google’s paid search revenue to effect social and humanitarian change. In the second, users who click one of four “Give Panels” on the Ripple home page—dedicated to clean water, food, education and micro-finance—are shown an advertisement. Ripple then donates the revenue they earn from advertisers to address these needs.
Though Ripple earns only a small amount of money per click, it’s clear that the potential impact of such a program is vast. As Worldchanging points out, Americans pose more that 4 billion queries per month. Capturing even a small percentage of that market ads up to a lot, particularly on issues where even a few dollars can make an impact. It’s a provocative example of how the simplest things we do can be used as powerful tools for positive change.
Via Worldchanging.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 6th, 2007 at 1:05 pm and is filed under Sustainability, Environmental Change, Positive Change, Compassionate Capitalism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 6th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Very cool site, now how do we get something like this that goes to charities outside of Australia. Is there a version that should be created by region or country, this is facinating!
June 7th, 2007 at 9:26 am
GoodSearch is a search engine that donates 50% of its revenues to nonprofit organizations designated by its users. You use GoodSearch just as you would any other search engine. As the user, you designate which organization you want the money to go to so the geography, scope and programs are up to you. The organizations receive approximately $0.01 per search. Check it out at www.goodsearch.com.
June 8th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
The Ripple.org link in the first sentence needs a fixen.
June 24th, 2007 at 11:47 am
Ripple update: Unfortunately, Ripple does not earn any money from Google, nor do they currently donate any money per search.
This is from the Ripple blog - http://blog.ripple.org/ …
June 11th, 2007
“Ripple Search has encountered a couple of issues and ads are no longer appearing on the Google search results page - unfortunately this means that ripple Search is not presently earning money for our charities.”
July 3rd, 2007 at 2:31 am
Hi Guys,
Just to let you know that ripple.org search is working again and earning money for the charities.
We are also trying to get some charities from the US and other countries on board…any suggestions?
July 3rd, 2007 at 2:34 am
Oh..and another point…ripple donates 100% of it’s revenue to the charities.
We are entirely non-profit and run by volunteers.
McC, I’ve noticed that you’ve hit a lot of blogs to tell people about our tech issues. If you come across this post I’d appreciate it if you could post an update that the search is functional again.
July 3rd, 2007 at 9:26 am
Hi Matt,
Thanks for the update, glad to hear things are working again! In terms of US charities, we’re pretty big fans of the non-profits we’ve selected as our Partners For Change; you can check out the list here:
https://www.nau.com/homepage/index.jsp#/partnersforchange/partners_for_change&8
They range from the Global to the Local, and include both environmental and social/humanitarian groups. Best of luck, and thanks for the all great work you guys are doing.
Cheers,
Alex
July 3rd, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Thanks Alex…I’ll check it out. Likewise on the work!
July 10th, 2007 at 1:01 am
Hi All,
ripple should be adding some US and UK based charities in the next two weeks. Stay tuned….