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Google.org, a For-Profit Charity

Google has set up a subsidiary, Google.org, a for-profit philanthropy with initial capital of a billion dollars. Not being organized on a tax-free basis carries both advantages and drawbacks. From the article: "Unlike most charities, this one will be for-profit, allowing it to fund start-up companies, form partnerships with venture capitalists and even lobby Congress. It will also pay taxes." One of Google.org's first projects is the development of a plug-in hybrid vehicle that achieves a mileage rating equivalent to 100 MPG.

12 of 355 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Can't wait by ozmanjusri · · Score: 5, Funny
    I can't wait to see how Google finds a way to profit from a battered women's shelter.

    Well, this IS Slashdot. News for Nerds. Things that batter.

    /Me going to hell. What a downer.

    --
    "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
  2. Hybrid Vehicles? by atomicstrawberry · · Score: 5, Funny

    First we'll have the gCar, and it will cost far more than it's actually worth, but investors will cough up the money anyway. Apple will follow suit with their iCar, which will be made out of translucent white plastic, but will only run certain fuels. After making a suitable amount of money selling their iCar, they will begin to market successively smaller iCars, and charge more to get them in black.

    Meanwhile, somewhere in Redmond, Steve Ballmer will be plotting to 'fucking kill' them both. Unfortunately by this stage he'll have put his back out throwing chairs, so he'll instead switch to 'fucking kill'ing them with a motorised chair with wheels, which Microsoft will market it as the Zume.

    1. Re:Hybrid Vehicles? by atomicstrawberry · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's his greatest invention: a chair that throws itself

  3. Re:Well it has to suceed by zobier · · Score: 4, Funny
    The new director of Google.org is Larry Brilliant!
    That's Dr. Brilliant.
    I'm just waiting for Capt. Obvious to join the conversation.
    --
    Me lost me cookie at the disco.
  4. Hindu guru by Psychotria · · Score: 4, Funny

    From the article: (Brilliant)... has studied under a Hindu guru in a monastery at the foothills of the Himalayas

    Anybody who can study with a guru sitting on them has my respect

  5. MPG? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I thought DivX was the norm these days

  6. Same way they profit from everything else: by mcc · · Score: 3, Funny

    Targeted advertising.

  7. My car will get negative 100Mpg by goombah99 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm developing a car that will get negative 100MPG to cancel this out.

    Actually I'm trying to cancel out this goofy definition of MPG when there's electricity involved. Does a pure electric car get Infinity Miles per gallon?

    This sort of reminds me of a prank a friend pulled in college. One guy was always entering the room to announce he had managed to drive is economy car so skillfully that got outrageous gas milage. Tiring of this, my friend started adding a gallon of gas to the braggarts tank every night so that his milage and brags got bigger and bigger. Then the next week he started siphoning out a gallon out of the tank. The brags "mysteriously" ceased without explanation.

    So my car is going to use photovoltaics, and have an onboard device that inhales smog, and uses the electricity to produce gasoline. Then I'm going to drive up to gas stations, connect the hose and pump gas back into the filling station tanks. That will mess with their arithmetic! and I'll have my negative 100MPG vehicle.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:My car will get negative 100Mpg by 14CharUsername · · Score: 2, Funny

      Wouldn't it be easier to get -100MPG by driving around in reverse?

  8. Google! Fuck Yeah! by DaMouse404 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Coming again to save the motherfucking day yeah! -DaMouse

  9. Re:Well it has to suceed by grammar+fascist · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, we haven't had to wait long for Mr. Pithy Rejoinder, have we?

    --
    I got my Linux laptop at System76.
  10. Re:Can't wait by Ingolfke · · Score: 2, Funny

    That's easy. Turn them hos out... I mean... find employment opportunities for them in the local community and take a small percentage of their income to cover healthcare, security, and client management.