Why is America Lagging Behind?

T-Mobile announced yesterday that they are going to be the first to offer a 3G USB stick modem for your laptop. This technology has been around for years and in 3G form for at least a year. Why is it only hitting the US market now? Why is the US so far behind in this release?

 

TechAviv Founders Club – my6sense, attracTV, TicTacTi

Last night I attended another TechAviv Founders Club meeting at the IDC in Herzilya. The room was packed and as Yaron, the founder, was asking who crashed the show, I was thinking “this is great! Look how many people showed up, this organization is really going somewhere.” Here is a little bit about the start ups that presented.

 

How To Use Gas & Save the Planet

greenanysite_homepage

Well it’s true if you use this kind of Gas, you will help save the planet one click at at time. It’s called Green Any Site or GAS for short. This little bookmark “gives shoppers the ability to easily donate a portion of any online purchase they make, to the environmental charity of their choice. All it takes is clicking a special “green this!” bookmark whenever they shop online.”

It really is as simple as that. I had that chance to speak with the guy behind it, Tal Ater, who showed me how it works. He really didn’t need to show me much, because what I love about it, is how easy it is to use. The installation is just a drag and drop bookmark, and the process is really just a click and confirm action. how-to-gas

I am all for saving the planet and everything like that, a treehugger at heart, but when it comes to the web, ease of use needs to be the first priority, or else users like myself won’t use it. Not that I don’t want to help out, but if it is hard and annoying to use, then it is just not going to happen.

GAS has really incorporated both the environmental aspect and the user experience factor, into a really amazing and easy to use tool. Kudos to people like Tal who are using his talent as a programmer and web designer to save the planet.  The world needs more people like you.

Tal isn’t out there just to save the planet, and disregard his needs, he actually has a business plan. It’s rare to see such a venture with a business plan that makes sense and is attainable.

GAS’s business plan is focused around two areas:

  • Extremely targeted, ethical advertising at the time of purchase… Knowing what a user is about to buy and where he is about to buy it, is an amazing opportunity to advertise other products to him, and to help him make greener choices. This is one of our plans on how to not only raise money for the environment, but also help our users make smarter, greener buying decisions.
  • For example, when you’re about to buy a book online and click “green this”, you may see a small notice next to the GAS window suggesting you save an extra tree and buy the audio or e-book instead. This space may also be used for green tips such as suggesting places to recycle your old phone when you purchase a new one.
  • It should be noted, that GAS uses the data about a user’s purchase only for the duration of the transaction. No personally identifiable information is kept on a user’s shopping habits, in order not to intrude on his privacy.
  • Packaging and providing our technology for use by other non-profit and for-profit companies, so they can create their own version of GAS, completely branded to their charity, and benefiting different causes.

GAS is a really great way to make a change with a click, so check GAS out and start saving the plant one click at a time.

-Aryeh