Australian Search Engine for Charity

February 7, 2007: An Australian search engine dedicated to Australian based results says users can now donate to their charity of choice, simply by searching the internet.

Lookle was started up in 2001 under the parent umbrella of Australian Flourish. Dedicated to Australian websites, the engine predominantly feeds off Yahoo! yet provides its own unique look and feel for regular search activity.

But after a slow start-up, the search engine has now developed a donation system where one cent goes to a user’s charity of choice for every search undertaken. Considering the volume of search activity undertaken on the internet, Lookle says regular searches could turn into thousands of dollars for charities.

“Traffic has been fairly subdued since the launch in 2001, there was a spike but that has since turned static, but we are now expecting things to pick up,” says Alan Rogers, Founder of Lookle.

For donations to occur, Lookle does not ask for contact details, but rather asks users to select their choice of charity from an extensive database of organisations. The donation scheme will then automatically occur with every search undertaken.

“The beauty of the system is that everyone gains. Users get to feel good by helping worthy causes, and as more people learn about Lookle our advertisers get greater exposure,” says Rogers. “We’re looking for extra charities and schools to join. It is a free service for them and they should apply via Lookle’s website.”

As this week marks Lookle’s initial start on the charity donation scheme, Rogers told IDM that no figures are as yet available on revenue generated.

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