The Live Search team recently launched two new programs to help children in need, and we would love you to help us out. The good news is that all you have to do to help us is try Live Search on one of our “click for the cause” sites, and each search you do will add more money to Microsoft’s donation.

The two organizations we are working with in these programs are  ninemillion.org and Team Seattle. Ninemillion.org is a United Nations led campaign providing education and sports programs for nine million refugee youth around the world, and Team Seattle is the most successful motorsports charity in the US, racing to benefit Seattle's Children's Hospital. By partnering with these organizations, we get to be a part of some great efforts to help children at a global level, and right here in our community.

Team Seattle - teamseattle.live.com

A lot of us live in the Seattle area, and we're privileged to have access to one of the top children's hospitals in the country. That kind of care comes at a high cost, however, and not everyone can afford to pay, so Team Seattle has stepped up to raise money for Children's Hospital's uncompensated care fund, ensuring that kids get access to world class care regardless of their ability to pay. In ten years of racing, they have raised over $2.2M for Children's Hospital, and this year they are aiming to raise over $500,000.

For our part, Live Search is sponsoring the Team Seattle race car at this year's 24-hours of Daytona race, and to complement that sponsorship, we have created the teamseattle.live.com site, where every search you do adds an incremental $1 to our donation (see site for details) to Children's Hospital. (As you might imagine, we are also pretty excited to have the Live Search logo painted on the side of such a cool car!)

Ninemillion.org - click4thecause.live.com

Live Search is a global business, so we wanted a way to help kids all over the world who are in need. Supporting Ninemillion.org and their mission to help 9 million refugees really stood out as a great way to make a impact.  Each search at click4thecause.live.com results in a financial donation from Microsoft to provide help with education programs to the refugee kids around the globe. More info on ninemillion.org’s work with these youth can be found at their Windows Live Spaces blog.

In addition to the money raised from the searches, Microsoft is also donating online advertising and editorial space across MSN and microsoft.com to raise awareness of the relief effort.

Add them to the IE7 Search Box

Both of these charitable programs run through March, so to create more efficient giving, you can add these search pages to your IE7 Search Providers list, and make one your default. Adding a search provider in IE7 is pretty straight forward. Just go to the dropdown menu in the IE7 Search Box:

..and use the Find more providers option to get to the page that explains how to do it. For teamseattle.live.com and click4thecause.live.com you should follow the instruction in the yellow-shaded Create Your Own box on the right.

---- Sebastian Gard, Live Search Product Management Team