Posted by : Tom Doyle in (Internet & Computers, Online Marketing, Web Design, Web Development) 9th Aug, 2007
Blackle - The Energy Saving Search Engine
Well that’s what they claim anyway. Blackle.com aims to save energy by presenting a Google Search Engine in darkness. The search engine uses the Google Custom Search Engine service. On the about page of their website they say:
“Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. Image displayed is primarily a function of the user’s color settings and desktop graphics, as well as the color and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen.”
However, on Google’s official blog they claim that this is untrue. On Google’s blog post they mention that a recent study showed that showing black on a flat-screen monior actually increases energy usage.
But I have to say at least someone is attempting to make websites use less energy. I have a client who works as a consultant for Sustainable Development projects. Although he is fully converted to using recycle paper etc, he still wastes a lot of space and makes his webpages extremely large against our best advice. It would be nice to see if websites could actually be built in a way to save energy……
There is another search engine like blackle called the Carbon Neutral Search Engine but it offsets a minimum of 100g of CO2 per search. The more searches the more carbon offset, they are planning to launch a search toolbar soon too.