Mister D: I’m Mister D and I approve this message! I approve this article! I approve this page! I approve BLB I approve YOU!!! This is a great idea. Please read below!!:
Philly’s very OWN Divine Ms. M!: Do you feel like contributing to NYRP (or Philly’s Journey Home) without writing a check? Then here is a little something you can ALL do and it won’t cost you one thin dime.
While reading through my new Oprah magazine (May), I discovered a new search engine that allows you to donate to your favorite non-profit organization (NYRP or Journey Home) each time you use it.
It is called GoodSearch (see article below) and is a search engine powered by Yahoo! Instead of using your favorite search engine (i.e: Google), you now can go to, www.goodsearch.com , and once your are there, go to the “I’m supporting” option and type in your charitable organization (NYRP or Journey Home) and “verify”. When this is completed, you then type in what you are searching for. By doing this (easy) search, you are generating income to the organization you chose.
For example: if 100 people use this 2 times a day for one year, GoodSearch will donate approximately $730.00. 1,000 people – approx $7,300.00 and 10,000 people – approx $73,000.00 (I will let you do the math as the number of users increase). What a great idea!! Not to mention, if you choose an advertisement while searching – MORE $$$ is then made in the total donations.
So…What are you waiting for??? Get the word out about GoodSearch and be sure to use either NYRP or Journey Home as the non-profit organization of your choice.
See ya!!
Philly’s very OWN Divine Ms. M!
New York Times
Conduct a Search, Make a Donation
By BOB TEDESCHI
BILL GATES made news earlier this month when he said Microsoft’s MSN search engine might give away cash or software to get people to use the site. Actually, Yahoo and Google are already exploring that ground, although they are relying on other companies to do it for them.
Like many other Web sites, a pair of online newcomers, Blingo and GoodSearch, license search technology from Google and Yahoo and earn a commission from the major search companies for any ads visitors click on when they are on Blingo.com or GoodSearch. (Those ads are, like the search results, generated by Google and Yahoo.) Unlike other sites, though, both Blingo and GoodSearch give away portions of their revenue – as prizes or as donations to the users’ favorite charities.
The businesses stop short of handing cash to users who may be tempted to sit at home clicking search ads between naps. Blingo randomly gives away iPods, PlayStation game consoles and other items, while GoodSearch sends donations to schools and nonprofit groups on the user’s behalf.
But these approaches replicate, at least partly, Mr. Gates’s idea. Search engines collect up to $50 each time somebody clicks on an ad next to the search results – sometimes even more if the pitch is for products like certain financial or legal services – and sharing some of that wealth not only would make users happy, it would also presumably dissuade them from straying to the search services of another company.
“This isn’t as crazy as it sounds,” said Rich LeFurgy, a principal at Archer, a San Francisco consulting firm that specializes in marketing. “I think of it as the business model that’s waiting to happen.”
GoodSearch, which is based in Los Angeles and uses Yahoo’s search technology, started down this road last month. Each time someone searches, GoodSearch gives half of the advertising revenue that it earns from the search to the person’s charity or school of choice.
Only some of the people who search actually click on an advertisement and thus generate income for the site, so the company averages only about 2 cents in revenue for each search conducted.
By that math, a charity with 1,000 supporters using the site twice a day would generate about $7,300 in total donations annually.
GoodSearch users need not worry about the site collecting potentially sensitive information about their charitable endeavors, because the company does not require users to register or otherwise identify themselves. Rather, the site’s visitors specify a beneficiary before they search, and the site designates an anonymous donation for that search.
To verify the company’s claims about its donations, Ken Ramberg, GoodSearch chief executive, said the company would submit its books to an auditor and post the results on the site.
Neither Mr. Ramberg nor Yahoo would disclose the terms of their deal, and Google also declined comment on its foray into this market. Mr. Ramberg declined to say how much GoodSearch had given away so far.
“The beauty of this is obvious,” he said. “This money is being raised by people who are doing something they do every day: search the Internet.”
Mr. Ramberg, who started a job search company for college students in the late 1980’s and sold it to Monster.com in 2000, also declined to say how many people had used the site since its introduction last month.
But he said that the site’s traffic was growing “faster than we expected,” and that he expected to be able to earn a profit, given the comparatively low overhead costs of running an Internet business.
Mr. LeFurgy, of Archer, noted that online businesses often share commissions with other companies that send them business.
Some of them, like Ebates.com, return a share of that commission to consumers who buy goods online through the site. The idea has not yet extended to the far more lucrative world of online search advertising, though.
“There might be a short-term revenue hit, but this can be a very powerful loyalty tool, which is especially important now because we’re in a market share game,” Mr. LeFurgy said.
According to Forrester Research, Google continues to dominate the market, increasing its share from 31 percent to 41 percent of all searches in the last two years. Yahoo is holding steady in second place with about 20 percent of all searches. MSN dropped to 15 percent this year, from 18 percent last year – perhaps spurring Mr. Gates to think more seriously about how to keep users on the site. (MSN would not offer specifics about plans to reward users.)
Blingo.com is helping Google attract searchers – it did not disclose how many – by giving away prizes at random moments during the day to consumers who use the site to search through Google’s database.
The site, which is based in Mill Valley, Calif., uses an algorithm to determine when a prize is due to be awarded, then posts a message on the screen to the user who happens to be searching at that moment, telling them what has been won and how to collect it.
According to Frank Anderson, Blingo’s chief executive, the company toyed with the idea of paying its most loyal or valuable users, but he said users would have had to register with the site, thereby complicating the process. (iWon.com, a division of the IAC/InterActiveCorp unit Ask Jeeves, uses a registration process in awarding prizes to its search customers.)
Moreover, Mr. Anderson said, when money is the prize “you pull people out of the woodwork to abuse the system.”
Instead, Blingo gives away prizes, like movie ticket vouchers, iPods and PlayStations, Mr. Anderson said, and limits to 10 the number of daily searches that are eligible for awards.
“This is perfectly tied to loyalty,” Mr. Anderson said. “If you’re a regular user, you’re more likely to win.”
The company will be profitable early next year, Mr. Anderson predicted, even though it gives away 1,500 prizes a month, worth $25,000.
As intriguing as this approach may be, it has other flaws aside from the potential for fraud, according to Shar VanBoskirk, an analyst with Forrester.
People who are drawn to giveaways and promotions, Ms. VanBoskirk said, are less valuable to marketers because they’re more interested in the cash or prize than whatever it is the marketer is selling.
“You’ll always get people who are willing to become your customer for a bribe,” she said. “It’s a pretty expensive way to get customers who might not be qualified for your business.”
