American Idol blew it the other night. Idol Gives Back had the perfect opportunity to use their technology for good rather than for evil but instead chose to use their mobile technology simply to make more money for themselves. The Idol hype and promotion machine never stops, even when they are in the middle of a charity event. I couldn't believe my eyes and ears when Ryan Seacrest pulled out the sweepstakes question that viewers can answer for a mere $0.99 per vote for their chance to win $10,000 and, oh yeah, a chance to watch the Idols film their next mickey mouse club Ford video commercial.

Why did Idol use their off-deck mobile technology for their contest but not as a mechanism to contribute to the Idol Gives Back charity? They are the most popular television show in the US. Couldn't they have gotten the US carriers to provide a short-code that could be used for a charity? Of course, this would mean that the carriers could not take their mafia style share of the gross revenue. But, I would like to believe that even the US carriers have a heart.

If Idol went ahead and used off-deck psms technology, allowing users to contribute to the Idol Gives Back charity by texting the word Idol to a short code which costs $0.99, they could have raised millions more. Texting a word to a short code and billing the end user for that text message eliminates any barriers to entry that may exist. IN other words, anyone with a cell phone could have donated to the charity instead of only poeple that called a number, used a credit card and made a pledge. With almost 30 million viewers watching Wednesday night, American Idol could have possibly raised close to 100 million dollars.