Seeking to End World Hunger, One Search at a Time

The New York Times
April 14, 2009, 1:58 pm
By JENNA WORTHAM

A search engine can pull up results, but can it also dish out three meals a day?

That’s what Vladimir Hruda, David Whitehead and Salmaan Ayaz, undergraduate students at the University of Richmond, are hoping. The trio of students built Hoongle.org, a custom Google search engine that promises to donate 20 grains of rice per search to schools in the developing world.

Since the search engine rolled out in September, the site has generated more than 8.5 million grains of rice, or the equivalent of 4,000 meals, Mr. Hruda said. “We’re adding tremendous value to everyday searches,” Mr. Whitehead said.

To finance their food fund, the creators donate the fraction of a penny in revenue generated by each search, which is enough to pay for the equivalent of 20 grains of rice. A small portion of the proceeds goes toward server maintenance charges, Mr. Hruda said. The search engine works through Fill the Cup, a campaign of the United National World Food Program that delivers food to schools around the world.

“Typically charity requires donation,” Mr. Ayaz said. “But we’re creating the value that we’re donating. There’s no cost to us, or anyone, for doing this.”

Mr. Hruda, a mathematics economics major, first came up with the idea to carry out social change through technology after volunteering in Guatemala building stoves. “I wanted to do more,” he said. “And then I came across custom search engines.” He enlisted the help of his friends and Hoongle – a combination of the words “hunger” and “Google” — was born.

Hoongle.org’s strategy is similar to that of FreeRice.com, a nonprofit collaboration between the United Nations World Food Program and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Visitors to the site are asked to play a simple vocabulary game; for each correct answer, 10 grains of rice are donated to developing countries via the United Nations’ World Food Program. To date, close to 63 billion grains of rice have been generated by people playing FreeRice.com.

But unlike FreeRice.com, Mr. Ayaz said, the novelty of Hoongle.org, is less likely to wear off. “We aren’t asking anyone to do anything extra or anything that they aren’t already doing,” he said. The three men are hoping that users will set Hoongle as their default home page, search engine or both, in Firefox and Internet Explorer.

So far, the site is catching on: The team said the search engine had about 90,000 users in 130 countries, and traffic to the site has been doubling every two to three weeks. The team has discussed rolling out versions in different languages and even producing a version for the iPhone.

If the site becomes large enough, the team will consider a partnership with the University of Richmond, to continue development. For now, though, they’re focusing on graduating in a few months. “We’re taking it one step at a time,” Mr. Hruda said. “But we’re excited by the possibilities.”