So we’ve finally launched what I had touched on before - iBegin Gamma. Consider it our version of Google Labs. Let us know what you think.

We do a lot of stuff in the local space that never sees the light of day. Be it internal analysis, coding projects, little snippets, ‘widgets’, and so forth. A set of non-core and (even) non-useful stuff that still should be published online.

So hopefully in the next week or two we can launch a little version of our own ‘labs’ here at iBegin. Shouldn’t be taken too seriously - just some random testing, thoughts, and projects of our own (most half completed) for the world to enjoy.

Update: and it be here.

iBegin Source has been around for over a month now, and we’ve had over 2500 non-commercial downloads (more on that later).

I thought I would take the time every few months to showcase a few sites using our data.

First up is Restaurant Reviews. We had a bit of hand in this product - the design was done by our design firm, Design Disease.

I absolutely love the design. I am definitely biased here, but I really think it has one of the nicest/cleanest UIs a local site has (I will admit - even nicer than iBegin’s).

The site is very fast to use, but I do wonder how they will get users involved. I talked to the two operators, Anita & Todd Cowan, and they promised me they have some interesting ideas. They did underscore that they want to remove anonymity and focus on the ‘meat’ - actual reviews, not stories and tales. Time will tell how it goes, but it does look good, and it does respond fast. I’ll do a follow up in a couple of months.

The other site is OddPath.

OddPath is an interesting one, a lot due to what happened in the background.

The site was developed by Kailash. Very smart and very talented (we acquired Commentful from him). When we had launched iBegin Source, I had showed him the site.

A few weeks later, we were chatting about performance optimization for searching through 10+ million records. After some discussion, he mentioned how he was working on a local site using iBegin Source.

One of the motivating factors behind iBegin Source was to enable hobbyists (ala Kailash) to build something local. While I firmly believe that our price point is extremely affordable, it can still be expensive for others (ala Kailash - a student). So while I had never officially announced it (I imagined it would be months before it would be useful) - we had always intended on awarding ‘free’ commercial licenses to interesting projects. They would still have to link back to iBegin Source, but otherwise they would get the full commercial data/license.

Case in point: OddPath. Kailash did the entire site himself, without incurring a dime in expenses (other than hosting). And he was able to do this because of iBegin Source.

Before I digress any further - OddPath’s best feature is its mobile search. Simple and effective, I think this is OddPath’s best feature. Other features such as ‘Buzz’ and ‘Pictures’ are interesting, but definitely need some fine tuning. The mobile feature (and its simplicity) could push him forward there.

I’ve been mulling over this for a while - a way to give to charity. But also a way to inspire others to contribute too (every cent counts).

A friend of mine and me bought billion.org a while ago. The name says all about our lofty goal But while brainstorming on how to raise money (amongst other issues), one thing that keeps coming up - do people really care?

Eg lets say I made a website - lets call it ‘CharitySearch.com’ The results were directly from Google, and all AdSense (minus the hosting fees) revenue went to charity. Personally, I would find that a no-brainer. Just change my top right search to CharitySearch.com, and done! That has to make some money. But would people do it?

We also talked about using an Adsense ID for charity. We could make one day of the month ‘Charity Day’ where everyone would change their AdSense ID to this specific ID (got approval from Google). But how many people would actually do that?

Another idea was to find some corporate sponsors, and basically act as a conduit. Every dollar you donate goes to the charity you want. But the benefit would be that under the ‘billion.org’ idea we would be doing something for the greater good. 1000 people donating $10 - no one pays attention. But billion.org raising $10,000 towards its lofty goal of $1,000,000,000 - maybe something to write home about?

But the nagging question I have always had - would people do it? CharitySearch.com would take less than a minute (changing your default search engine). AdSense ID would be more complicated, depending on your CMS. On a site like Blog Flux it would take us under a minute. The third option is harder, but it gives your donation double meaning - you donate to the charity you want to and you compel others to do the same.

Anyone care to comment on motivations there? (especially since #1 costs you zero cents).