No kidding: Collaborating
I haven't checked my Yahoo email for sometime, and just today, I decided to log in. Then I briefly saw that an ex-colleague (no prizes for guessing which company =D) sent me an email. Excited to see what it was about, I clicked on it. All the excitement died down when I saw that the email was a default email inviting me to visit a certain website (a networking group).
I was rolling my eyes and did not click on it. It was until some time later, when I rememebered that a while ago, my other ex-colleague sent me an email inviting me to Yahoo! Mash. Then it made me realize that this website could be another one of Yahoo!'s new products!
Then the excitement soared again. Eager to see what new stuff they have come up with, I clicked on the link and it led me to this website named "GoodTree" with the tagline "Make a Difference".
Then I clicked on a link and it led me to the page as seen below.
Wow. So this is what they have come up with. A new search engine powered by Yahoo! and Microsoft. And who's left out? Yep. The big capital G.
Click on the "about" page to find out more and you will discover that GoodTree.com is for a good cause. Or rather, many good causes.
"GoodTree is the Web portal that makes a difference in the world every time you use it. Here you get a personal homepage that can be your control panel for your life online, allowing you to navigate the Web in a way that reflects your beliefs and values. You can join causes, surround yourself with people who care about the same things you do, and share information with them about how to make a difference."
"GoodTree will never ask you for money, and every time you do something on GoodTree, like view a banner or invite a friend, a portion of the advertising revenue generated goes to charity. Here’s a list of supported charities. You should select your favorite causes and charities to increase the amount they receive."
I don't know about you, but I think that this is a rather smart strategy. So the rationale is that if I use goodtree.com to search, I raise funds for a cause that I'm passionate about (e.g. protecting the environment, against global warming, protecting animals etc.).
This is especially viable with an increased trend to do good for the society. CSR has been so talked about in the recent years, and inevitably increased consumers awareness of organization's obligation to do something good for the society.
With a search engine that gives back to the community in terms of how much consumers use it (which means that consumers are in control - to a certain extent - of how much is donated), this could probably work very very well!
Just imagine. Now, you not only do what you do most regularly on the Internet, but at the same time, you're raising funds for charity. Then you'll most probably use that search engine with a concious effort in helping the community. Also, by combining the search power of the 2 search engines... correction... 3 search engines (including ask.com), people can now search more efficiently.
This is also very beneficial to the reputation for Microsoft and Yahoo!. By gearing up together and powering the search for this website, it definitely builds up their image for CSR.
So now, the million dollar question is: How do I know how much goes to the related Charities?
Click on GoodTree's financial information and you will see a table with amount donated to specific charities.
And, the ten-thousand dollar question is: How do they determine how much goes to which Charity?
Click on their donation algorithm and you can see a host of mathematical calculations which I not go into detail here (hell no!).
This search engine also triples up as a networking site, whereby you can network with others who share the same cause that you are passionate about. Could be interesting to network on the basis of helping the world.
But as everyone knows, networking sites are usually short-lived. Even facebook. I HARDLY log into it anymore. Unless I need to find someone who's in my contact list and I don't have their direct phone number/ email. Also, with this pounding issue of privacy, I seldom use Facebook nowadays.
We'll see how this turns out in time to come.
And if GoodTree.com is successful in the future, it will have a spillover effect on Yahoo! and Microsoft (and ask.com), leaving out... *ahem*.
*It'll be interesting to see what big G will do to counter this combined effort of the 2 other major search engines.*
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