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Hitwise Intelligence - Robin Goad - UK

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Burma / Myanmar Google charity donations

May 09, 2008

The humanitarian crisis caused by Cyclone Nargis in Burma / Myanmar.has elicited a huge amount of public sympathy and support. Yesterday we noticed that Google had taken the unprecedented step of placing a link to a special Cyclone donation service set up in conjunction with UNICEF and Direct Relief International on its main start page.

Google search page with Murma Myanmar charity donation link.png

People clicking on the ‘Support victims’ link (illustrated in the screenshot above) were taken to page that enabled them to donate to either of the two charities / NGOs. Interestingly, these donations were not collected via the organizations’ own websites. Instead, people were sent directly to a Google Checkout page that allowed them to donate the gift of their choice. This appeal has obviously been successful in the UK – as the chart below illustrates, Google Checkout experienced its busiest day in months yesterday, with 33% of this traffic coming from Google’s UK and US search properties (where the donation link resides), up for 28% last week.

UK Internet traffic to Google checkout following bruma myanmar charity appeal.png