Ask.com Asks What You Know About Autism

The Internet marketing community is a generous one.

The ever-popular IM Charity Party has raised more than $100,000 since the first even was held one year ago today. I’ve had the opportunity to contribute to efforts taken upon by folks in the industry; Casey Yandle is doing his part in the Relay for Life (just $30 more, kids!) and last month Rebecca Kelley made the unfathomable journey up 69 flights of stairs as part of the Big Climb. Those are just a few of the selfless acts made by Internet marketers every day.

April is Autism Awareness month. The always evolving Ask.com has partnered with Autism Speaks to raise money and awareness for the advocacy organization. The search engine will donate $0.50 every time a user chooses a designated skin to personalize their Ask home page throughout the month of April. Just click on the little “peel me” in the top left corner and your page will be transformed:

Additional pennies can be added by correctly answering questions displayed on the page. Regardless of whether you answer right or wrong, you can find out more from a link on the page, adding the important dimension of education and awareness to the program.

The questions you answered incorrectly can be re-answered after you’ve found out the facts, meaning that the organization won’t lose any cents because you didn’t know better.

The extra clever part is that Ask is also getting a little extra awareness for their search engine as well. Drawn in by the “find out why” prompts, I’m discovering handy features I never knew about. Looks like Ask is really getting somewhere with its semantic strategy.

In the end, Internet marketers aren’t the only one’s happy to give back. Our search engines are as well. Contributing to such causes is a win-win, after all — you get good press, warm fuzzies and the opportunity to give to the future all at once.

Virginia Nussey is the director of content marketing at MobileMonkey. Prior to joining this startup in 2018, Virginia was the operations and content manager at Bruce Clay Inc., having joined the company in 2008 as a writer and blogger.

See Virginia's author page for links to connect on social media.