Blackle

Energy-saving custom Google search

In January 2007, a blog post titled Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year proposed the theory that a black version of the Google search engine would save a fair bit of energy due to its popularity. Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. You can set Blackle as your home page; this way every time you load your browser, you will save a little bit of energy….

From the American Library Association’s e-newsletter, “American Libraries Direct” 5/23/2007.

10 thoughts on “Blackle

  1. I do like the American one Blackl. Better result display (google layout instead of adds at top and bottom of the page and easier to read colors). The Black Google Blackl (http://www.blackl.com) is also hosted on renewable energy and uses small data transfers to save more energy. Blackl is my choice. Google was created in the US and the best Black Google is also the US one. We are actually good in this area.

  2. There is also the Carbon Neutral Search Engine, they offset each search by 100g of CO2 … (or black background for CRT monitors)

  3. I really think that this is a really solid idea. There should be more ideas on how we can save energy and help the environment while using computers and the internet. Since Blackle was launched, other sites similar to it has emerged. One site in particular caught my attention. Its called GreenbackSearch (http://www.greenbacksearch.com/) and their motto is to give some green back. They not only use eco-friendly colors on the site but more importantly they donate a big part of their revenue from searches on their site to Carbonfund.org, an organization that focuses on renewable and cleaner energy for the future. It is a really good site with a lot other features as well.

  4. The “Black Google” energy savings only apply to older CRT monitors (maybe 20% energy savings). With an LCD screen, the backlight is always on, whether the screen is black or white.

    Of course, if you are concerned with energy usage, you shouldn’t be using a CRT anyway.

  5. You might want to note that Blackle is just the first page of http://www.searchincolor.com, a site which has offered google search in color since a much longer time. There are other color combinations on searchincolor which are energy saving..in general a dark background with light text will save energy over a standard white background.

    John

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