Five Bing Contest Web Apps Chosen, to be Judged at Gnomedex

<p><img border="0" src="http://www.bing.com/community/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.29.00.Attached+Files/2555.jlaughing_5F00_squid_5F00_smaller.jpg" /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;"><em>Gnomedex Photo by Scott Beale/ </em></span><a href="http://laughingsquid.com/"><span style="font-size: small; color: #0000ff; font-family: Calibri;"><em>Laughing Squid</em></span></a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">Well, it meant a lot of Excel spreadsheets (hey, we are Microsofties!) and a lot of off-hours surfing but we’ve finally come up with the 5 finalists that will be judged at </span><a href="http://www.gnomedex.com/"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">Gnomedex</span></a><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;"> this week for the final chapter of the Will Code for Green contest. Even if you aren’t among the top five, please know we appreciated and reviewed your efforts.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">In no particular order</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">Ecology</span></p> <ul> <li> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"> <p><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://demo.climatetimes.com/">Climate Times</a></span></p> </div> </li> <li> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"> <p><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://erbbysam.com/leedsearch/index.php">LEED Supplier Search</a></span></p> </div> </li> <li> <div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://hasianku.com.mytempweb.com/gohejo/Home.aspx/">gohejo</a></span></div> </li> </ul> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">Economy: </span></p> <ul> <li> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://www.GreenZig.com">Green Zig Cash and Carbon Savings Calculator</a></span></div> </li> <li> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://www.undereconomics.com">UnderEconomics</a></span></div> </li> </ul> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">Barring any last-minute eligibility problems, the worst that can happen to any of these submissions is that it wins $3,000, and the best of course is that it takes its place as top of its category for $10,000 as a top Ecology or Economy application using Bing. Only the Gnomedex attendees can affect the fate of the submissions now, and they will be the first to know (announced on the last day of Gnomedex) who the top two winners are.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">Even knowing from other developer contests that the last-minute rush can be substantial, we were still surprised to receive more than 40 submissions that had to be validated and evaluated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Roughly a third of these were disqualified. Some of the disqualified entries were people openly advertising their business via the contest site, or folks who just didn’t get what the theme or rules of the contest were.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we couldn’t verify your application had called the <a href="http://www.bing.com/developers/">Bing API</a> all summer, well, you were also deemed out of the running.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">   </span>(I mean, even if no one visits your web site, you still gotta test the application right?!) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few applications that were otherwise interesting made the mistake of requiring personal information from the user to get at the functionality.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span></p> <p>  <img src="http://www.bing.com/community/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.10.20.99.Attached+Files/2502.1010112_5F00_moneyTree.jpg" /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">A few that didn’t win but we wanted to note…</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://findfresh.us"><span style="font-size: small; color: #0000ff; font-family: Calibri;">Findfresh.us</span></a><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;"> , a local produce-finding Web site to help you keep healthy and buying local as well as a<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>volunteering opportunity site Improving the </span><a href="http://www.unwaveringpact.org/default.aspx"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">Global Economy One Life at a Time</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> caught our eye. One judge liked <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><a href="http://www.cheapafoods.com/"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">Cheapafoods.com</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> , which gets special mention for that highly unnerving personage on the home page.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://greenrhino.joefleming.net/"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">Green Rhino</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>and </span></span><a href="http://www.gogogreenrangers.com/"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">www.Gogogreenrangers.com</span></a><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>represented interesting cross-application mashups in the same vein as </span><a href="http://www.bingtweets.com/"><span style="font-size: small; color: #0000ff; font-family: Calibri;">www.bingtweets.com</span></a><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;"> (sorry, that last one’s actually Bing’s own, but felt constrained to mention it). </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">A wacky one was </span><a href="http://www.theemploymentrate.com"><span style="font-size: small; color: #0000ff; font-family: Calibri;">Theemploymentrate</span></a><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">.com, which measures how many people in you zip code ARE employed. It seemed novel until we realized using it might actually make the unemployed feel worse. Great graphics though.</span> </p> <p><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">We wanted to give a shout out to some university types that submitted, including The <a href="http://webpages.eng.wayne.edu/~dz1525/Bing/index.html">IT Job guide</a>, while not a finalist, and the recipe results of <a href="http://vivekrpai.com/miscellanious/recipesearch">Just Blend IT</a> who had a strong following among the Bing foodies..</span> </p> <p><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">We also want to thank some folks in the community who spread the word about the contest for us and/or gave us feedback:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Coders</b> – they provided some great examples for folks at </span></span><a href="http://www.programmableweb.com/"><span style="font-size: small; color: #0000ff; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.programmableweb.com</span></a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Green-minded</b> -<a href="http://www.treehugger.com">Treehugger.com</a> and <a href="http://www.thedailygreen.com">thedailygreen.com</a> as well as </span></span><a href="http://www.seattlegreendrinks.org/"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">seattlegreendrinks.org</span></a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Personal finance bloggers</b> at these sites - </span></span><a href="http://thesimpledollar.com/"><span style="font-size: small; color: #0000ff; font-family: Calibri;">http://thesimpledollar.com</span></a><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">, </span><a href="http://www.fivecentnickel.com/"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">www.fivecentnickel.com</span></a><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">, </span><a href="http://www.doughroller.net/"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.doughroller.net/</span></a><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">, </span><span style="font-size: small; color: #0000ff; font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://www.moolanomy.com">http://www.moolanomy.com</a></span><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">, </span><a href="http://www.wisebread.com/"><span style="font-size: small; color: #0000ff; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.wisebread.com</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span></span></span><a href="http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/</span></span></a><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">  and <a href="http://www.thedigeratilife.com">http://www.thedigeratilife.com</a> .</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">And of course the community at <a href="http://www.lockergnome.com">www.lockergnome.com</a> and <a href="http://www.gnomdex.com">www.gnomdex.com</a>!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">On to Gnomedex!</span></p> <p>Betsy Aoki, Bing Program Manager</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="http://www.bing.com/community/aggbug.aspx?PostID=9545504" width="1" height="1">