Update! FreeRice Releases Beta of New Layout

The site we know and love - FreeRice - has released a new beta version for users to test out. The new beta site is for everyone to use. It has some new features that will definitely impress anyone who has used the site before the beta (as well as those who lamented the lack of a leader board!) and even a new, fancier layout.

Among the new features is the ability to create an account. With the creation of accounts, one has access to joining, creating, and playing for new user groups, and keeping track of their total scores (either individually or for an entire group). Also requiring an account is the friends system. Having an account may be integral to accessing all of the new goodies on the site, but it's not necessary to play the game.


Save for the necessary addition of account creation, groups are perhaps the most important update to the FreeRice game in the beta. Groups allow users to compete in rice count; competition will surely raise the rice count. Players can join multiple groups, but can only play for one at a time. To "play" for a group, simply click the double arrow button next to "Groups" on your info bar, and then select the group you wish to play for. The top 5 players will be featured on the group's information.

In addition to receiving recognition through groups, players can show off by sharing on Facebook and Twitter. Such information such as totals earned per group, overall, etc. can be posted. Extensive information on totals can be viewed on the user profiles, which can also feature a website, some personal information, and a description.

Go to the FreeRice beta now!

AIDtoCHILDREN - Helping Children in Need Through Learning

AIDtoCHILDREN

"HELPING CHILDREN IN NEED THROUGH LEARNING"

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UPDATE: As of Sept. 18, 2011, AIDtoCHILDREN is down.
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AIDtoCHILDREN is one more great site to add to the list of easy-to-play browser games that help the world. Have you played FreeRice or Charitii lately? Then you'll definitely recognize AIDtoCHILDREN's style as soon as you jump in, with the question answering to raise funds for the charity (or charities).

The style is recognizable, with a question, and four possible answers. You click the answer you think is right, and if it is, then your skill level progresses and you donate money to the cause. If it's wrong, your skill level goes down, but that's it. It's simple, doesn't take time to load, and is very quick to play. You can exit whenever you wish, but there is no way to save your skill level and amount donated as of yet. Whenever you reload the site, you must start the questions over again.

Answering a question correctly will donate .25 cents to the AIDtoCHILDREN/World Vision cause, which is used to feed children in need. That's $0.0025, meaning 4 correct answers donates a penny. While that may not seem very helpful at all, consider this: you can answer 4 questions in about 10 seconds quite easily. According to the site, it takes just 25 cents to feed a child in need. All it takes to feed a child is roughly 250 seconds, or just over 4 minutes! Four minutes of your day to give another starving child some food, thanks to AIDtoCHILDREN.

The site itself is run by the World Vision charity. According to an article in the Puget Sound Business Journal:

"World Vision says it collected about $1.1 billion — an increase of 16 percent — from U.S. donors during its fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2008. The group’s total revenue, including grants, product donations and foreign donations, climbed 16 percent to $2.6 billion."

Even in a global recession, especially in the U.S., there was a considerable increase in the amount of donations pouring in to the charity. World Vision looks like it is and will continue to be a successful cause to donate to, and AIDtoCHILDREN lets you do that for free and with ease. So head on over the the site, and help feed children in need: AIDtoCHILDREN.

The Hunger Site - To Help Eradicate World Hunger

The Hunger Site

"The heart and soul of The Hunger Site's mission, to help eradicate world hunger, is rooted in the struggle against poverty and hopelessness."

The Hunger Site is another very simple, easy to use click-to-give. You can earn food for the hungry people around the world by clicking a button on each page. FreeRice.com, as mentioned in my previous post, utilized the genius idea pioneered here by The Hunger Site.

The point of the site, like FreeRice.com, is for people to actually view a page in which there are advertisements. The money generated from the viewing of these advertisements is used to buy food for the hungry. However, unlike FreeRice.com, you can only click once a day (though this one click pays for a whopping 1.1 cups of rice, in comparison to the 10 grains per correct click on FreeRice).

You can also check out the other tabs at the very top of the site, such as Literacy, or Breast Cancer, and you can click once a day per cause. Yes, that's right -- you can click once a day for EACH cause, instead of just one. So make your rounds while you're there. The causes listed are:

Hunger
Breast Cancer
Child Health
Literacy
Rain Forest
Animal Rescue

The site provides a very useful service to help you remember when to do your daily click: simply click the Daily Reminder button (to the bottom left of the "Click Here To Give - it's free" button) and enter your e-mail. Please note that if you do not wish to receive e-mails from them that are not the daily reminder, you will need to uncheck the box that says, "Send me free weekly e-newsletters."

For doing so, they also claim that you will receive a free wristband for the cause. Also note that this wristband will require you put in a credit card (PayPal is not working for them, currently) and pay about USD $4 shipping and handling, which is way more than a wristband is worth, and I doubt the money goes to charity. I suggest you steer clear of the wristband unless you truly adore it and must have it.

The site was created way back in 1999, by John Breen (the same man who invented FreeRice in 2007, and thus displays notable similarities). It was then sold to GreaterGood, and eventually CharityUSA. The site is not actually a charity, though it started out that way. As quoted on Wikipedia and similarly stated on the site itself, "CharityUSA currently claims that 100% of the website's sponsor advertising revenue is paid to... non-profit partners."

Any way the site works, all it takes from you is one click a day-- that's just seconds of your time daily-- to give some food to those who need it. With the Daily Reminder to your e-mail, it's only easier. Check it out, and do your part for humanity: The Hunger Site.

FreeRice - For Each Answer You Get Right, We Donate 10 Grains of Rice

FreeRice

"For each answer you get right, we donate 10 grains of rice through the World Food Programme to help end hunger"

FreeRice is one of the most ingenious, easy, and helpful sites I have seen on the internet in quite a while (if not in my entire time on it!). It donates many, many billions of grains of rice to the hungry people in third-world countries, where local inhabitants would not normally be able to feed themselves. It also doubles as an excellent device for learning or practicing such subjects as English vocabulary, foreign languages, geography, and more.

The idea at FreeRice is very simple -- in fact, it is so simple, you might not believe I am being 100% genuine until you try it out for yourself. Essentially, when you go to the site, you will immediately be presented with a question; answer it correct, and you will instantly be told that you have donated 10 grains of rice.

Answer as many questions as you want on any subject you want (you can click "Change Subjects" at the top right corner of the question box or the "Subjects" tab at the very top to change subjects) and for each correct answer, the site will donate 10 grains of rice instantly, guaranteed.

How can they do it? Well, this is where the ingenuity comes in (and for this, I think the creator, John Breen, deserves a medal or something!): each time you get a question, a banner appears at the bottom of the screen. This banner is not obtrusive at all (in fact, it is quite out of the way), but the advertisers pay for each time their banner is viewed. The current owners of the FreeRice site (the World Food Programme of the U.N.) use all of the money earned by advertising to pay for the rice.

Win-win!

Just by clicking the correct answer to a question, and perhaps even learning something, you can feed children and families all around the world! The World Food Programme says that 20,000 grains of rice provide enough caloric intake to sustain an adult for one day. That means it takes 100 people less than 2 minutes of consistently answering questions at a normal speed to feed an adult for the whole day!

The site also has a free FreeRice toolbar that's quick and easy to download. Once downloaded, use the search bar as you normally would your default search bar. For every 5 searches you do, FreeRice will donate 2,500 grains of rice, up to 5,000 grains per day. Search naturally, though; apparently "fake searches" to simply raise the rice donations will result in disabling of your rice donations for using the toolbar.

It is absolutely free, it is incredibly simple, and it is a really great thing to do. If you happen have some spare time, or if you are feeling a bit generous, go on there and do some good for your world, at FreeRice.

World Food Programme - Fighting Hunger Worldwide

World Food Programme

Fighting Hunger Worldwide

The World Food Programme is a branch of the United Nations that addresses the problems of world hunger. From the organization headquarters in Rome, the WFP aid those who cannot obtain enough food for themselves or their families. According to their 'About page', the WFP claims:

"The World Food Programme is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide."

The World Food Programme has clear, well-stated goals, as expressed on their 'Our Work' page in the 'Objectives' section:

"WFP's strategic plan lays out five objectives and all our work is geared towards achieving them. They are:

1. Save lives and protect livelihoods in emergencies
2. Prepare for emergencies
3. Restore and rebuild lives after emergencies
4. Reduce chronic hunger and undernutrition everywhere
5. Strengthen the capacity of countries to reduce hunger"

The WFP has clear direction, and is integral to saving lives all around the world by feeding those who are hungry. Donate and save lives all across to the globe, too, with the World Food Programme.