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Green Home community from Huddler.com integrates a new Facebook app.
In case you missed it, the social Web is decentralizing the online experience. Whereas the Web was once a grand archipelago of individual island sites (with speedy ferry service), it’s becoming connected and integrated in ways that enable us to consume content and experience the Web on our own terms. It’s conceivable that I could follow all of the content from a website without actually ever going to that site. This isn’t the goal or intent, since one would hope that the central site would provide an extra measure of value, but we now have a choice. This is one of the functions of widgets. An excellent example is Green Home’s new Facebook widget: Green My Ride.
Green Home is the first community in the Huddler network. According to the company, the strategy is to “tightly integrate forums, wikis, product reviews, image hosting, and user product profiling to provide the deepest, most comprehensive product research sites online.” The products in question include everything from the Tesla roadster to Tom’s of Maine toothpaste. Users select and review products, which are categorized by kitchen, bathroom, transportation, general home and heating/cooling. In addition to user reviews, each product has its own wiki. You can even subscribe to a product to get notified when anything changes. All of this was limited to the main website…until just last week when the new widget was launched.
The “Green My Ride” drum beat goes like this:
Electric cars, compact fluorescent light bulbs, non-toxic cleaning products, organic toothpaste…there are so many things that can help you live well and live green. See how your sustainable lifestyle stacks up with other eco-heads: green your ride from a gas guzzler to a solar electric car by showing off your green stuff on your Facebook profile, telling people what you think about your stuff, and bringing your friends into the competition. You even have the chance to win real Renewable Energy Credits! Find other eco-minded folks from around the world, learn what products they use, and get their advice on green living – all within Facebook.
The widget app provides added value for existing Green Home members by enabling them to use a small part of the service within the Facebook environment. Plus, it becomes a powerful and potentially viral recruiting tool. If you’re already a member, the widget imports all of your current products into the widget and tallies your points accordingly.
According to Green Home’s Dan Gill, “I hadn’t been very impressed with the other green apps out there except in terms of their traffic. While we’re a higher barrier to entry app, I’m still excited about the potential.”
Green My Ride uses points to gauge your greenness, which can ultimately earn renewable energy credits (RECs). Here’s how that works:
The credits are the scorecard between you and your friends, as well as between you and all other green riders on Green My Ride. Secondly, as you win more credits, your car will be upgraded. You’ll start with a gas guzzling, flower crushing monster vehicle, but after only 15 credits, you’re automatically upgraded to a gas sipping vehicle. At 50 credits, you move up to a cool hybrid-electric vehicle. At 100 credits, you go 100% electric (but you’re still grid tied). Finally, at 250 credits, you get the sought-after solar electric vehicle, complete with mountain range, sunshine, and trees. What’s more, beyond something cool to have on your Facebook profile, each week the greenest rider will win a year’s worth of real renewable energy credits (or RECs) from Village Green Energy.
As of post time, we were driving a Gas Sipper, and we ranked #43 among Green My Ride users…thanks to our use of Seventh Generation TP and Method soap.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Conscious Consuming Meets Social Shopping. Or, You Get What You Pay For | Max Gladwell // May 27, 2008 at 12:33 pm
[…] Home: We wrote about Green Home’s new Facebook widget, Green My Ride, already. This is multi-featured wiki platform, which the company calls a Huddle, where the […]
2 7 Questions with Huddler Green Home CEO Dan Gill | Max Gladwell // Aug 6, 2008 at 5:18 pm
[…] You launched a Facebook application called Green My Ride that we wrote about. Explain how that has been valuable and effective. Did you get a good ROI? Were there any […]
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