FreeRice.com: Tiny App, Big Idea

As you might know, I am an English geek, who after a beer or two is apt to start unsolicitedly reciting poems--sometimes, worse yet, only parts of poems. I keep books of poems in my laptop bag to loan out on airplanes. I have a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary at my house, which I read for fun. And stranger still, I love and have always loved taking tests.

So FreeRice grabbed me right away. Like The ESP Game, which I blogged about a while ago, it's a game. There are a couple big differences, though. For one, FreeRice, unlike The ESP Game, isn't directly interactive.

The business model of FreeRice is really elegant. It's not trying to do too much: Users take a vocabulary quiz. Correct answers add to the user's score and to the size of the donation. Each question loads a new ad. The revenue from the ads funds the donation. Perfect!

The site claims two missions: Feed people who need food, and make English vocabulary available to everyone. Point one, yes. Point two, really? Spreading rice and vocabulary seems a little bit of a stretch to me. Can't it just be rice and fun? The experience is compelling enough as is, without needing to add a dubious notion of aiding the vocabulary-deprived masses. But no matter. The site works:

It works because it's simple, fun, and most of all because it's got an idea. It just makes sense.

And something FreeRice has made me think about is whether an experience that isn't interactive might nonetheless be basically social. The social context of the FreeRice game spans the online information space and the physical, concrete world--wherein there are hungry people.

Simple. Elegant. But most of all, helpful, practical, and doing good. A great example of a tiny app with a big idea.

By the way, anyone know what "ocellus" means? No cheating.

Comments

[sarah]

i
am
so
hooked.

but you knew that. ever since our first game of hangman, when i beat the reigning champ.

and no, i ain't talkin' 'bout you.

[Ryan]

Sarah, that's because

you are

a

nerd.

[Scott]

An ocellus is a type of photoreceptor organ in animals of course! ;)

FreeRice is definitely a cool website concept. What do you think about these newer charity sites out there: Charitii.com, freeflour.com?