Charity Search

[zzzaacckk]

Hi guys,

I come to you with a TAO Forums project. For a while I have wanted to do a Charity project here. As a community, we can achieve GREAT things. A friend recently showed me something that sparked my imagination.

Now, I did not want to ask people to randomly donate money. There is a website called http://www.goodtree.com/ . This website is a search engine that searches the same things that Google does. It has an image search as well. What makes it special is that for every time you use it to search, money is donated to the charity of your choice.

I propose, that as a community, we begin to use www.goodtree.com as our home pages, and as our primary search engines. It searches the same websites as www.Google.com and www.Yahoo.com, but for every search you make, money is donated to charity (granted it isnt much per search but as a community it will add up). I hope you will actually take me seriously and at least give it a shot. No harm can be done and only good can come of this.


How Is This Possible?


GoodTree is free, we have no banners or pop-ups, we will never ask you for money, will never send you spam... and we raise a lot of money for charity.

Many people don't realize that they generate money for various companies nearly every time they click around the Internet. How? The Internet has matured into a large marketplace where brand-named vendors pay to have potential customers like you visit their websites by clicking on text and image links. They pay a few pennies per click, several billion times per month and it adds up to... are you ready for this?... $14 billion per year.

We wondered if some of that money could be re-directed to charity, and we've built a system to do just that. Just use GoodTree to start your normal Internet surfing, generating pennies as you go, and the GoodTree system tracks those pennies, collects them from the merchants, and redirects them to the charities of your choice. It's only a small amount each time you go online - about a penny per web search but over a year it really adds up. Multiply all that by millions of GoodTree users, and together we have the ability to make a serious difference in the world.

GoodTree is also a great product to use. GoodTree is an innovative and useful homepage / search page. All of the leading search engines contribute to the results: Google, Yahoo, MSN, and AskJeeves -- making GoodTree results the best of what all the search engines have to offer. Another cool feature to notice is how you can layout your bookmarks colorfully on the homepage and access any service on the web with one click, whether it's on Yahoo, MSN, Google, or AOL. Please take it for a test drive and see what you think.

GoodTree was built for Internet power-users, but we've tried to make it elegant enough to work for anyone. If you have any comments or suggestions, please email us.

What should you do? Choose your charities and tell people about GoodTree. It takes just a minute to send an email to, say, 50 people you know. If they send it to 50 people and you all use GoodTree to start your surfing, after a year you will have been responsible for generating over US$10,000 for charity! You pay nothing and the charities pay nothing. Pretty amazing, and you can make it happen with just one email. As you use GoodTree, you'll know the impact you're having because the overall contribution made by you and your friends will be displayed right on your homepage.

Having GoodTree as our homepage is like having a goodness passport for the Internet - you're a member of a dynamic new movement harnessing the incredible power of the Internet for the greater good.


I would really love to see our community make a difference and I sincerely hope for a positive and active response from you guys.

I posted this on LegendsForums as well. Hopefully all players of TAO can make a difference in the world, even if it is $0.01 at a time.

[EmelGreenLeafer]

HI Zack. :)

[Wizzy`]

HI Zack. :)

I hate you so much.

[zzzaacckk]

HI Zack. :)

Thanks for the very deep and moving reply :)

[-57-]

Heh, sounds interesting and nice... it's just... I'm going to forget ;)

Oh, and a question! (Yes, it's related to this topic :p)

For you Mozzila Firefox users out there, you know the google search up in the top right corner? Well, you can change it to Ebay, Yahoo, all kinds of stuff... well is there any way I could at a site onto that list so it would always be what I searched through? This would help a lot, because although i'd use this when I remember, I'd only remember about ohhh 5ish% of the time ;)

But good idea Zach, it's a kind thought! :)

[zzzaacckk]

http://www.goodtree.com/about/change?attempted=true#

there you can download it.

[-57-]

Welp, I got some good news, and some bad news... ;)

1. I figured out how to add it to my little search thingy!

2. Sorry man, but goodtree just isn't good enough... I mean, it's a nice thought and stuff, but it only gives you 2 pages on an image search, and 4 on web pages. No matter what the search is ;)

Sorry man, don't think I'll be using this :(

Edit: Heh, found it on me own! :p

[Realist]

It's just a marketing ploy.

This search advertising business has higher margins than other businesses such as Newman’s Own. Note that Newman’s Own has only a 10% profit vs Google’s 34% profit. Online advertising is just a better business than food.

Hmm...I've heard that google is the only profitable search engine, sure online advertising is a growing market but I wouldn't hold great hope that this will ever become actually profitable while giving away 50% revenues.

Heh, better to use the search engine that is most convinient to you and just donate money to charity directly, I think that's a more efficient system.

[Kyir]

HI Zack. :)

Please die in fire and spare our brain cells the horrible death you have planned for them.

[mushroom_girl]

I use Google all of the time. :)

I'll be glad to use goodtree. I saw your post in Legends also. Hey, if all of us use it, we can add up at least a couple of dollars a day.

I think it's worth it to change a search engine.

[abyaly]

A local United Way office realized that the organization had never received a donation from the town's most successful lawyer. The person in charge of contributions called him to persuade him to contribute.

"Our research shows that out of a yearly income of at least $500,000, you give not a penny to charity. Wouldn't you like to give back to the community in some way?"

The lawyer mulled this over for a moment and replied, "First, did your research also show that my mother is dying after a long illness, and has medical bills that are several times her annual income?"

Embarrassed, the United Way rep mumbled, "Um ... no."

The lawyer interrupts, "or that my brother, a disabled veteran, is blind and confined to a wheelchair?"

The stricken United Way rep began to stammer out an apology, but was interrupted again.

"or that my sister's husband died in a traffic accident," the lawyer's voice rising in indignation, "leaving her penniless with three children?!"

The humiliated United Way rep, completely beaten, said simply, "I had no idea..."

On a roll, the lawyer cut him off once again, "So if I don't give any money to them, why should I give any to you?"
I thought this quote fits :p

[Northwind]

Heh, better to use the search engine that is most convinient to you and just donate money to charity directly, I think that's a more efficient system.
Real - I won't tell you what kind of logical fallacy this is, as I'm sure you know and you apparently don't like that kind of thing. I will say, however, that you've created a false dichotomy by pretending that people EITHER can use this search engine OR donate to charity, when they could easily do both.

And how is one search engine more "convenient" than another? :confused:

[speaker4thedead]

Sounds good it shall be done (by me at least ;))

Lets eacrh every word known to man :wink2:

[-57-]

Real - I won't tell you what kind of logical fallacy this is, as I'm sure you know and you apparently don't like that kind of thing. I will say, however, that you've created a false dichotomy by pretending that people EITHER can use this search engine OR donate to charity, when they could easily do both.

And how is one search engine more "convenient" than another? :confused:


North, google is more convieniant by the means that goodtree only gives you 4 pages.. always... ;)

Sorry, but when I search I usually need more then 4 pages, not to mention I do TONS of chairity events and stuff... I mean... ugg, it's just that.. DAMN YOU! FINE I'L USE IT! :p

[Realist]

No, don't use it. Or at least read this post first.

NW, my point was that, unless this search engine is of the exact same quality as your favored search engine, there is some kind of quality cost that would be more efficiently paid to charity in cash. Doubtless this is a silly argument of mine because the feel-good reward is greater than the efficiency cost for many, as 57 is pointing out. But there's a bigger reason not to use this.

It makes money from online advertising. I suspect it only gets money from clicks. If you don't usually click on ads in your online browsing, then, you are only costing this site bandwith, essentially stealing from the pursuit of charity. Nor does simply clicking on an ad for the purpose of giving money to your charity help matters any, unless you will actually buy the product of the ad. For advertisers will lower the price they pay per click if fewer people buy their product after clicking on their ad.

So the only reason to use this is if you think you might someday click on an ad in this search engine and then buy the product because of influence from the ad. Obviously there are many people who do do this. But I'm guessing TAO's population is not full of such people.

[Snork]

How is 4 pages not good enough?
If you did your search correctly, whatever has the most relevance should be in those pages, and you will find what you need.

Unless you're looking for porn, then you require several hundred pages.
Is that what you're doing?

[EatMine]

hmm, i just wrote a long post about me not knowing what to think of these kinds of business models. But then i realized that my confusing yada yada about the comparison between google/yahoo and this site only makes this site probably look worse than it actually is and me look like a weirdo.

So, maybe someone understands my problem without introduction and can say something smart to the following question:
if i have to choose between two evils, is it ethically important to choose the lesser evil? Or is it actually still possible to not sell out to convenience, and really act ethical by fighting the evil? :confused:

Hmm, now that i wrote it, this isn't just about web sites ...

[/weirdo]


P.S: i bet 5$ that yahoo will buy goodtree in one year for 50 million $
[/weirdo2]

[Forest_Archer]

Who is zzzaacckk?

EDIT: omg, 2500 posts? did the bots like evolve?

[mushroom_girl]

Who is zzzaacckk?

EDIT: omg, 2500 posts? did the bots like evolve?

:mellow:

Are you serious?

[Buster]

:mellow:

Are you serious?

Its a joke... zzzaacckk aint posted much in sometime..he just does a few post here and there.