Can you change the world?

Google wants to know if you have an idea that can improve the lives of as many people as possible. And it wants to know before Oct 20, 2008.

“These ideas can be big or small, technology-driven or brilliantly simple — but they need to have impact,” the king of search on the Internet said.

Google has US$10mil (RM33mil) to turn five of the best ideas it receives into reality.

It will first identify 100 best ideas and then ask Google users to vote on which ones should be funded. Their votes will result in a shortlist of 20, which a panel of judges will further distil to five.

The call is part of Google’s 10th birthday celebrations and known as Project 10^ 100 (pronounced Project 10 to the 100th).

“We have learned over the last 10 years at Google that great ideas can come from anywhere,” it said in a statement to the press.

“We want to extend to the world the idea that great ideas come from all angles.”

Google said it knows that there are countless brilliant ideas that need funding and support to come to fruition. It cited some examples of cool ideas.

There’s a team of two implementing a solution to help the millions of people who laboriously carry on their heads five-gallon buckets of water over long distances, it said.

The team has designed The Hippo Water Roller — a relatively inexpensive 24-gallon container that can be easily wheeled on the ground.

Another cool idea, said Google, is to have communities tacking on WiFi devices to public buses so they can detect and send stored e-mail messages as the buses travel through unconnected areas.

Find out more at www.project10tothe100.com, and remember that there’s a deadline to send in your ideas. Better get cracking now.