May Those Who Help The Most Win

Are you a do-gooder? Do you like helping others? Occasionally dreams of being a hero? Imagine yourself saving the world by saving the cheerleader? But you don't have a superpower to speak of. And yet, you have big ideas on how to make the world a better place but lack the resources to carry them out. Well, now here's your chance.

Google has just announced Project 10¹⁰⁰ (pronounced "Project 10 to the 100th"), a worldwide call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible. This is in conjunction with their 10th birthday.

Why is Google doing this?
The short answer is that Google thinks helping people is a good thing, and empowering people to help others is an even better thing. Here's the long answer.

How it works:
1. Send Google your idea by October 20th. Describe the gist of your idea by filling out the official entry form. You can supplement your proposal with a 30-second video.
2. Voting on ideas begins on January 27th on the Best 100 ideas and the public to vote the Top 20 semi-finalists. Then an advisory board will select up to 5 final ideas.
3. Google will help bring these ideas to life by committing $10 million to implement these projects, and the goal is to help as many people as possible.

Idea Categories:
// Community: How can we help connect people, build communities and protect unique cultures? // Opportunity: How can we help people better provide for themselves and their families? // Energy: How can we help move the world toward safe, clean, inexpensive energy? // Environment: How can we help promote a cleaner and more sustainable global ecosystem? // Health: How can we help individuals lead longer, healthier lives? // Education: How can we help more people get more access to better education? // Shelter: How can we help ensure that everyone has a safe place to live? // Everything else: Sometimes the best ideas don't fit into any category at all.

Criteria:
- Reach: How many people would this idea affect?
- Depth: How deeply are people impacted? How urgent is the need?
- Attainability: Can this idea be implemented within a year or two?
- Efficiency: How simple and cost-effective is your idea?
- Longevity: How long will the idea's impact last?

This is a great example of branding at its best. The whole concept & idea is so ideal v& unique to the Google brand. From the project name "Project 10¹⁰⁰" which is basically a googol, to the scale, scope & overall goal of helping to make the world a better place. Go Google Go!

note: the reward is simply making the world a better place. If you read the FAQ, you'll discover there's no $ in it for you even if you win. But if you're a true superhero, you wouldn't care about that, would you?