Develop a Green Web App, Win Serious Money

If you spend any time on Facebook you've probably encountered (Lil) Green Patch, a "social gardening" application designed to raise awareness (and real money!) in support of rainforests. Specifically, for every 10 friends you send a virtual plant to through the application advertisers help save one square foot of rain forest. (Lil) Green Patch is one of the most popular apps on Facebook, with many thousands of users.

Now, a new contest hopes to encourage development of other green apps, this time based on Microsoft's Live Search APIs. Live Search and the influential tech conference Gnomedex have launched the "Will Code for Green" contest, and the prizes include some serious money.

According to a Microsoft spokesperson, "Our goal is to encourage people to make Web applications using Live Search that can change the world for the better and we are thinking that if we get folks involved at the grassroots level, they can help geeks design Web applications that really help the planet."

There are two entry categories: Economy, which is to include applications focused on how to deal with the worsening global economy, and Ecology, which is to include apps that promote awareness and preservation of the environment. The Web applications can be based on any technology platform, as long as they use the Live Search APIs described here.

The top entry for each category will be awarded $10,000, plus a three-year BizSpark membership (giving access to thousands of dollars of Microsoft software to further develop their ideas). The three runners-up will receive $3,000 plus the BizSpark membership.

According to Microsoft, "We purposefully created the contest rewards so that the originators of a good idea could have some monetary means to take it further into a business or something that might help a non-profit. We feel there are even more interesting possibilities if a non-profit or grassroots group partners with a company or people in their community to make these Web sites/applications happen."

Developers, start your Live search engines! Find complete contest rules here.