As consumers become increasingly interested in finding resources that will help them save money and time, Google has launched a Web community that also users to post and vote on money and time-saving tips. The site, known as TipJar, already has thousands of tips in easy to navigate categories such as finance, health, technology, kids, family and several others.Users can submit tips by logging in with their Gmail account information or by creating an account. Other users vote on whether they like or dislike a particular tip. Savings suggestions with the most votes appear at the top of each category's homepage. Google enforces a 250 character limit on each tip to ensure that they are short and sweet, allowing users to read through and vote on many tips quickly.
TipJar is supported by Google Moderator, a tool that offers other community posting sites such as “Ask a World Leader” and “Ask a Google Engineer.” Users can post questions and the community votes on their favorites, pushing questions with the most votes to the top of each page.
When submitting a tip, users post a name and a location. However, most of the locations are actually Web sites. This illustrates an interesting side benefit of the way that TipJar has harnessed the power of leveraging collective knowledge. Not only can users read the most popular tips, they can also visit the Web sites, many of which are dedicated to saving money, to track down even more information.
Americasaves.org, for example, is a group that represents a coalition of organizations that encourages all households to save, regardless of age or income level. By reading the tips authored by Americasaves.org, users of TipJar are exposed to the resources the site provides.
--Bridget O'Sullivan
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