SEO Survivor

28 Jan, 2008

GoodSearch in Greedy Hands

Posted by: seosurvivor In: Internet Buzz| SEM

I’m assuming not all of you know GoodSearch yet. It’s a Yahoo-powered search engine, founded in November 2005. (According to Wikipedia, so don’t put your money on it :P)

GoodSearch Logo

GoodSearch has good intentions. Participating merchants, such as Target, Macy’s, PetSmart, Best Buy, Staples, Walmart, Toys “R” Us, Gap, Nike,  Nordstrom,  Apple, eBay, Barnes & Noble, Oriental Trading, iTunes, amazon.com, and many more donate a percentage of each sale to a charity or school designated by the user.

For heck’s sake, let’s say you like donating to your local YMCA. Well, you’d designate your Y as your charity of choice within GoodSearch, and every time you search using their engine, or their toolbar, a tiny little bit of money is raised for them. Here’s the chart they have on their site to explain GoodSearch donations:

GoodSearch Chart

Okay, so you’re probably thinking what I was thinking at this point… “Cool, this seems legit!”. Well, it probably is legit as a tool and on how it works.

I’ll tell you what I don’t trust, I don’t trust in some of the “charity” organizations out there that will probably see this as an opportunity to get a few extra bucks in their pocket.

Evil Executive using GoodSearchLet me give you an example. Say you work at a Non-profit that is registered with GoodSearch. Your Non-profit has 150-200 employees. You make it mandatory that all of your employees use GoodSearch’s toolbar, and that every time they have to search online, they use that engine. Then, at the end of the year you get a nice “bonus” from GoodSearch.

I know this is a negative way of looking into things but trust me, some people will do that and they are probably already doing it. Big names have been found to have a lot of  charity corruption, and don’t even get me started with the little unknown ones.

Don’t get me wrong people, I believe in charities and Non-profits, but I also believe that you have to know where you’re sending your money, not all of them operate the way you and I may think they do. 

GoodSearch has a disclaimer under their search bar that reads: “Please use this site honestly. Fraudulent searches will result in your charity being delisted.” Do me a favor and stay away from GoodSearch corruption, and GoodSearch fraud. It’s a good concept that depends on good people being involved with it.

My two cents? I like the idea, but I think that there has to be some sort of accountability for where the money goes.

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3 Responses to "GoodSearch in Greedy Hands"

1 | John Bartis

January 28th, 2008 at 8:14 pm

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Had no idea that GoodSearch was out there. Thanks for sharing your opinions, even though I agree, all I can do is use them and hope the charity I’m supporting is clean.

2 | Christopher Parker

March 11th, 2008 at 5:40 am

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The solution for what you are saying lies in the fact that the user can designate their own charity. So the power of due diligence lies with us. It’s no different than responding to a direct mail piece.

That’s the first level of accountability. Plus for organizations to be registered as 501(c)3’s there are some standards and reporting requirements, although that doesn’t eliminate all manner of dysfunction and waste (same as any organization).

The second level of accountability comes with public involvement in the charity. If you _volunteer_ for the organization, you get a good sense of how they operate and spend their money . . . and you are giving on another level too. And of course, it’s important for (1) the media to be involved with organizations (accountability . . . ) and (2) us to share our own experiences with others (accountability . . . ).

3 | Ben

July 23rd, 2008 at 7:08 am

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I recently wrote an article about this, basically agreeing with you that GoodSearch seems shadier than anyone else really thinks. It specifically states on the FAQ page that the only way revenue is generated is through clicking on paid search results, not regular ones. On top of that, it states that most high-traffic sites won’t even count toward the totals. On top of that, only 50 percent of the revenue generated goes toward the designated non-profits … and if you don’t designate, then none of it goes to charity!

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