Village business launches new search engine to boost charities

It has become common practise to '˜Google it' if you don't know the answer, but what if your searching could raise hundreds of pounds for charity.
A Southwater company has created an internet search engine which raises money for charity, Jason Smith, Mariusz Lech, and Philippa Schlaefli. Pic Steve Robards  SR1610411 SUS-161104-153853001A Southwater company has created an internet search engine which raises money for charity, Jason Smith, Mariusz Lech, and Philippa Schlaefli. Pic Steve Robards  SR1610411 SUS-161104-153853001
A Southwater company has created an internet search engine which raises money for charity, Jason Smith, Mariusz Lech, and Philippa Schlaefli. Pic Steve Robards SR1610411 SUS-161104-153853001

A Southwater organisation has launched a set of search engines allowing users to do just that.

Help for Group Limited has spent the past year building three new internet search engines.

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The search engines generate money each time they are used by people browsing the web and the company is donating all the money raised to different causes.

The organisation is run by a group of volunteers and launched its first search engine, Help for Cancer, at the beginning of the month.

Jason Smith, founder of Help for Group Limited, said: “The beauty of this is people would just be doing what they normally are doing, searching the internet and looking for the things they want.”

Jason and his business partners came up with the idea after realising just how much money search engines such as Google and Bing made.

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He said he was also heavy influenced by an article on how communities came together to support veterans returning home from the Second World War and wanted to create his own modern-day support community.

He said: “Communities have changed so much. They are so much more dispersed and global.

“If we can take a small proportion of users and other use us on a daily basis that will be wonderful.

“Why don’t we see if we can change what people search with and make money for charity.”

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Jason explained most of the fundraising comes through advertisements, including sponsored adverts and people clicking on certain links.

He added it also gains a few extra pennies from items bought online from certain sites, if the search engine has directed people to that website.

Jason said: “We have averaged that a family of four who were searching on a normal monthly basis could generate £500 to £600 a year.

“Ultimately it is a search engine that will do good.”

As well as Help for Cancer search engine the organisation has also created two others, Help for Kids and Help for Soldiers. Both are expected to be launched in the next couple of months.

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To check out the current search engine visit www.helpforcancer.co.uk

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