Other than that, I appreciated your article, Nate.

Population, resources, asteroids, energy, countless things have wiped out countless species.

With that being said Google is more proactive than most with its involvement in helping move humanity off of this little planet and into space.

http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/google_nasa.html

I didn’t bash everything about Google. I just made a point about their search and if they’ve added anything to people’s lives because of it. I certainly do like the income from AdWords, and if there were something that I could use to generate both income for myself and for the non-profit of my choice, I would certainly use that over AdWords.

Seth,

How is storage of digital information a “social issue”? That is a want, not a need. It is not an “issue.” It’s a service to those fortunate enough to use a computer. Similarly, the ability to chat with people via online text is not a solution to a social issue in the traditional sense. Sure, it’s “social”, and sure you’ve found a way to talk to people who otherwise would only communicate via email, but that hardly constitutes and “issue”. I think you need to look up the traditional definition of “social issue” so we can speak on the same plane.

Also, although there is an argument that putting AdWords on your site will get you a better ranking, I seriously doubt it will help you that much. Technically, it’s not because of the links either. The links from AdWords don’t show up until after the page has loaded, which means the search engines don’t count those anyway. The small amount of bias you get is simply because you’re using a Google product, and Google likes that.

Now, you do have a point about the advertisements and money though. That has always been the case in a capitalist society. Those with more money have more power. More power means you can control where people put their eyeballs. Eyeballs and attention (in this day and age) mean more power. And, the cycle continues. Education and experience mean very little in a society like this, and Google hasn’t changed that. They’ve played to that point very well.

Re: RyeBrye – PageRank in one sense is totally twisted and search should be based entirely off content. Let me explain.
Many people are buying google ads because it will put their links on your page which will then boost their pagerank. They don’t care if anyone is clicking the ad or if its bringing them business. The real purpose of the apparent ads is to give them legitimate links that puts them higher on the search result list than their competitors. Isn’t it somewhat evil that people are motivated to pay for useless advertisement placement? Even an expert on a particular topic with a well read and linked to blog about it will not be able to beat someone determined with money. PageRank is responsible for about 10 emails a week asking if I will link to people if they link to me. I used to think this was ok, but now I’m not so sure.

I decided recently I did not want to work for google. I had an opportunity and I passed it up. I do continue to use their search, though.

TinyURL offers one thing – to change long urls into tiny ones. You give it some really long web address (like, say, a url to a product on amazon.com), and it shortens it into about 30 some-odd characters or less. Then, when someone clicks on that url, TinyURL.com redirects them to the amazon product – your original link.

It’s much more reasonable when you have a limited amount of space, like we do at twitter.com, or when you’re text messaging or SMS’ing someone.

Pretty simple service, but in certain circumstances it can be very helpful.

Thanks again JD Lady. :)

I’m poolitzer’s alter-ego uncloaked for now just to tell you ‘thanks’ for the other net links you provided. I had no idea there were so many of your kind out in the cyberworld, just getting people in touch with many of the ways we can make a difference, too. Some of us operate extras out of a pennyjar instead of foundations, so for us, we need other ways to GIVE and it’s people like you who provide us with CHOICES, and for that I’m grateful.

I’d like to provide my readers, via poolitzer’s OvertheRainbow blog, a link to this site of yours – you provide a lot of good reading here – and it would be my pleasure to direct people to this blog, too.

Now, tell me, please, a little about one of my favorite discoveries on the ‘net – tinyURL.com. What else does this site offer?

Thanks again, and I’ll be back!

Thanks for letting me know how you got here. I appreciate it! If you’re interested in doing good things for other people, I’d also suggest reading my earlier post on being your own charity and Giving Anonymously.

Thanks again, and thanks for the comments! You guys are great!

It was a Google search that brought me to your site :) I am doing a search on “people who do good” and your site was the first link on the page. I went over to GoodSearch to look around and liked what I saw, so I’ll be adding a link to GoodSearch on my blog. And, I plan on using it, too.

I’ll be back to check your site out more fully later, but now I’m on a mission and don’t want to break my stride!