Posted by Paul Ryan, Editor, Anthill Magazine

A few months back I wrote about FreeRice.com, an online word definition game run by the UN’s World Food Programme, which donates 20 grains of rice to needy people around the globe for every word correctly defined by users. Since then, several people have told me that they made FreeRice their homepage and spend the first 15 minutes of each day on the site improving their vocabulary, feeding starving people and assuaging their own bourgeois guilt - all in one blow. What a website!

Now there’s a new instalment in the ‘save the world by clicking your mouse’ website genre. ClickGreen is an advertising-supported tree planting initiative recently launched by Australian company ExtraCorp. Users are given the opportunity to offset their carbon emissions by opting in to receive targeted email advertisements. Approximately 50 percent of the site’s revenue will be invested into tree planting, which will be managed by Greenfleet (a federal government endorsed not-for-profit).

It’s an interesting model. GreenClick can sell the targeted enthusiasm of opt-in users to advertisers and the eco-conscious brand of advertisers to users. And, of course, there’s a viral component, with users also earning tree-planting points by referring other users.

ExtraCorp certainly isn’t the first company looking to make a difference (and a buck) in the green revolution. After all, saving the planet is big business.

So go forth, opt in, click and be absolved. It’s free.

Now if only we could name our trees…

Posted by Paul Ryan, Editor, Anthill Magazine

With the recent boom in online viral marketing through sites such as YouTube and Facebook, many people seem to have forgotten that word-of-mouth is actually the oldest form of marketing. Sure, cavemen weren’t able to upload videos of themselves vanquishing upstart rivals at the point of a club, but you can bet your last Pterodactyl tail that eligible cave ladies heard all about it on the grapevine.

Following in the steps of popular US customer review site Yelp, Australian entrepreneurs Fiona Adler and Brad Bond have been busy building WOMOW.com.au (short for ‘Word Of Mouth On the Web’) since launching the site in July 2007.

The concept is simple enough. Users write reviews of products and services from local businesses they have used. Businesses don’t pay for listings (as they do in a business directory), users don’t benefit (directly) from writing reviews and the feedback is better organised than a web forum. The idea occurred to Adler in 1999 when renovating her home and being reluctant to hire service providers without a positive recommendation. (Interesting side note: Adler recently completed an MBA and in 2007 became just the third woman to climb Mt Everest.)

Local businesses tend to have a love-hate relationship with user-generated review sites. In the US, several businesses became so peeved by regular vitriolic customer reviews on Yelp that they fought back by launching several anti-Yelp sites.

WOMOW hasn’t reached that level of notoriety. However, the site recently surpassed 20,000 reviews hosted. That still leaves a long way to go until every business in Australia is reviewed several times. But it’s pretty good going for 12 months’ work.

To succeed, user-generated business review sites have to place the interests of the readers over the interests of businesses. Inevitably, they ruffle a few feathers. Whether you welcome WOMOW reviews or regard them with suspicion, every Australian business owner would be foolish not to keep tabs on how they and their competitors are being portrayed.

Posted by Paul Ryan, Editor, Anthill Magazine

“Hey, I can see my house from here!”

Google Maps, already one of my favourite web services, today became even more useful for Australian users with the introduction of the Street View feature.

Great swathes of this vast continent, previously only visible on Google Maps from satellite imagery, can now be viewed at street level thanks to the millions of panoramic photos captured by Google’s industrious vans.

Google Maps was launched in May 2007 and is already available in more than 50 US cities. The prototype for Street View was first developed at Google’s Sydney engineering centre, so it is appropriate that Australia is one of the first countries outside the US to enjoy its benefits.

In response to privacy concerns voiced after Street View’s US launch, Street View in Australia features technology that blurs identifiable faces as well the option for users to flag for removal images they deem as inappropriate. As an extra privacy safeguard, Street View only contains imagery visible from public roads.

Of course, Street View isn’t just a fun tool for checking out your house (or beach volleyball games). It has already proven to be a commercial boon for several professions, including real estate, retail, tourism and education.

Not to mention Google…

*UPDATE - it seems that quite a few compromising scenarios have been uncovered by Google’s new quasi-omniscience downunder.