We are all aware of those charity schemes that ensure that a company must donate a percentage of the cost of a product when we purchase it but what if we were able to donate when we search?
A new search engine has been launched with this very purpose. The icaresearch.com engine aims to raise funds for charities by donating a percentage of its income generated through advertising on its site.
With 91% of online users using a search engine to search (source: The Pew Internet and American Life Project) the potential for the icaresearch.com engine to make a difference to good causes is a real possibility but what does it offer and how will it ensure it donates correctly?
Depending on the users geographical location visitors view a list of participating charities and once registered a user selects their preferential charity. Once they have selected their charity every time they click on a sponsored link on the site a donation is made to the selected charity.
Icaresearch.com state that the donations are a minimum of 2 cents per click but have highlighted that this could be a lot higher as, "there is no maximum and it depends on the amount the advertiser pays." Funds are transferred to the charities 30 days after the end of each month during which the donations were generated.
Dublin based Carrazan Ltd, who set up the site, have included a host of features on the site for searchers. There is a search history along with the ability for users to make notes about sites and store them in named research folders. The ability to invite other users to the site is hoped to provide strong word of mouth promotion with users utilising the 'team builder' function. Existing users encourage users to use the site and when someone registers, regardless of their selected charity, the original members charity receives a percentage of any money that the user generates on the site.
One additional facility included on the site is aimed at attracting the advertiser. Advertisers get to send one email message to each registered user who clicks on one of their adverts. While the search engine will not be providing advertisers with the email address of their users and sending the mail directly this offers an interesting level of contact between advertisers and users.
Participating charities include Ronald McDonald House Charities, DATA (Debt Aid Trade Africa), CRY (Child Relief and You), Children with Leukaemia, GiveIndia and hundreds more.
