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Google Calls for Ideas to Change the World with Project 10^100

Announcement
September 24, 2008

We’ve learned over the last ten years at Google that great ideas can come from anywhere. For that reason, Google is announcing as part of its tenth birthday celebration Project 10^100 (pronounced Project 10 to the 100th), a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible.

For this challenge we are asking our users to send us exciting ideas for ways to improve people’s lives and have committed $10 million to turn up to five of the best ideas into reality. These ideas can be big or small, technology-driven or brilliantly simple – but they need to have impact. We will identify the 100 best ideas and then ask our users to vote on which ideas we should fund. Their votes select the 20 finalists, and then a panel of judges will choose up to five ideas for final funding.

We want to extend to the world the idea that great ideas come from all angles. Google Chrome emerged when engineers realized they needed an entirely new browser to sufficiently engage with rich web applications. Google News began when on 9/11 an engineer became frustrated that he couldn’t aggregate news sources from around the world in one place.

We know there are countless brilliant ideas that need funding and support to come to fruition. What are some examples of ideas we think are cool? A team of just two people are implementing a solution to help the millions of people who laboriously carry on their heads 5-gallon buckets of water for long distances by designing and distributing The Hippo Water Roller (www.hipporoller.org), a relatively inexpensive 24-gallon container that can be easily wheeled on the ground. First Mile Solutions (www.firstmilesolutions.com) is implementing simple but effective ideas for connecting isolated communities in developing countries to the Internet. One plan has communities tacking on Wi-Fi devices to public buses so they can detect and send stored emails and messages as the buses travel through unconnected areas. Google is excited to fund projects that similarly have a big impact.

Google is turning ten years old. What better way to celebrate than by empowering people to help others? May those who help the most win!

For more information, please visit: www.project10tothe100.com

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