Web browsing for charity

A new website has been created that tries to generate some benefit to charity from the great volume of web searches conducted around the world everyday.

Trendhunter reports that the Goodsearch website is essentially a web browser like any other – in fact, it’s backend is powered by the Yahoo search engine. The difference is that, on Goodsearch, US1 cent goes to charity from every search conducted.

Here’s how it works. Visitors to Goodsearch are asked to nominate one of the charities registered on the website before they search. Then, when you conduct a search, a slice of the revenue from the advertising you get on the results page goes to that charity. The site only contributes to US charities at the moment, but plans to expand internationally in the future.

The website was founded in the US by online entrepreneurs Ken and JJ Ramberg, who realised that a serious amount of good could be done if a fraction of the $8 billion generated annually by search engine advertisers were directed towards organisations trying to make the world a better place.

Goodsearch says it contributes an overall 50% of its total revenue to charitable causes or schools.