Going somewhere this holiday season? Have a few empty seats in the car? Here's my suggestion: offer a ride using the Carpool application on Facebook. The Carpool application on Facebook is a ride-share program that allows you to view profiles of riders and drivers before you decide to carpool with them. It helps to alleviate the apprehension of spending four hours in a car with someone you've never met. Perhaps you have a friend in common, like the same kind of music or just feel more comfortable having seen their picture before making the commitment. Here's what ZimRide has to say about the application's popularity: "The Carpool application was launched on Facebook's platform on July 1st, 2007. As of October 30, 2007, approximately 20,000 users have added the application, posting over 10,000 rides. On any given day there are over 2,000 active rides posted. Given our current growth rates, we project a user base of 50,000-100,000+ by year-end. There are over 75 Facebook networks with at least 50 Carpool application users, and 10 Universities with at least 100 Carpool application users." The coolest part of this ride-share program is that ZimRide (the group behind Carpool) offers a Carpool Starter Kit to Universities that aims to help faculty, staff, and students implement and promote the program on campus. Institutions can use this application to help students coordinate ride sharing to and from campus - thus reducing the overall carbon footprint of the college and/or university. Carpool will also provide universities with ride history and C02 savings data!!Check out Zimride.com to learn how to sign up and participate.