Obama And Google Make A Splash With Service Site
Obama's call to service got a boost this week with the launch of All for Good, a Google-backed hub for volunteering.
With Google and Obama behind the project (not to mention Arianna Huffington), the site was destined to make a big splash.
Since its launch the site's open source API has been receiving a good deal of attention from the software savvy, with fond mentions in The Search Engine Journal, Web Pro News and Softpedia, which lauds Google for wanting to give back and offering "something it's best at, namely search."
The Obama administration itself was among the first to utilize the API on its own service site, serve.gov.
Mashable.com, the source of news on all things social media, says that's a logical extension of the Obama election campaign's use of the internet and social media to mobilize the nation.
Also jumping on board the national service push for partnerships with the site are YouTube, which has created the channel "Video Volunteers" to pair nonprofit organizations with volunteer video makers for some pro-bono promotion, and MTV, which will run a series of Public Service Announcements on its TV stations and has created a portion of its site devoted to volunteering for young people.
All for Good also encourages users to develop their own applications to utilize the site's data, and among the first of these is the Calista app which provides volunteers-on-the-go with updated volunteer opportunities around them on a mobile device.
A few negative reviews take an anti-corporate angle, with MSNBC giving voice to several who say their sites are being pushed out of the market by this big project, but in general the consensus leans with the folks over at Information Week , who applaud the effort and have dubbed Google "Saint Google" in honor of this and other recent good works.
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The Huffington Post | Stephanie Harnett
First Posted: 06-24-09 05:38 PM | Updated: 07-25-09 05:12 AM