Should you take Blackle, the Black Google's environmental claims seriously ?

04 September 2007 - By Sean Fishlock

I was asked by someone today whether they should take Blackle, the Black Google's environmental claims seriously. At Datalink, we are genuinely concerned for the environment, as you'll find in previous blog posts such as Login to Stop Logging, but I must say, I treat the whole Blackle phenomenon quite cynically.

Certainly every bit counts, but the small amounts. It appears that the old CRT monitors may save power fractionally but some say that LCD monitors may actually take up more electricity. Even if everybody used Blackle, which is highly unlikely, it is far from an environmental cure all, and simply a convenient way for us western world Internet users to absolve some environmental guilt.

In reality, if you read the fine print, Blackle.com is no more than a clever PR stunt by a marketing agency using the customised Google tools.

But it is not these things that really concern me. I don't think that usability should be sacrificed, and saying that in general black websites save energy is silly. White text on black backgrounds are highly unreadable, unless of course you use large text and bold headings, which of course would increase energy usage.

To me, thi is the bigger issue, Black is harder to read, takes longer to read, can cause tension and muscle strain and eye problems. The extra time spent trying to read results and recovering from use of Blackle may well be contributing much more to our energy usage. And imagine the extra power consumed printing the pages that we can't read on screen, not to mention ink (assuming that many sites don't have effective print style sheets).

A now famous blog claims that if Google was black, it would save 750 Megawatt hours per year. Words containing "mega" typically sound impressive, but in reality, that is the average consumption of about 1,000 Australian homes (assuming they all had old monitors) or 750 tonnes of greenhouse gas in a year. The United States uses more than 4 billion megawatt hours per year. Given that our population is now well over 20 million and many millions more use Google on a daily basis, alot more that this would need to be saved to make any dent at all on our general greenhouse emissions.

Turning computers off when not in use or using standby modes might be a more practical option.

As a web developer and web host, we do our bit to ensure that our energy usage is efficient and environmentally responsible, but unless someone presents a really convincing case for it, we would rather see efforts put into better causes and we won't be jumping on board and designing black background websites anytime soon ...

Comments

By masmax on 02 January 2010 at 07:42 AM

From all the Black Google search engines out there i prefer Pixeleco

By Timothy on 15 December 2008 at 11:07 PM

Hi, <br />
I have found many versions of black Google. The one I like best is www.labundi.com, its home page has facts & tips on global warming and energy saving. Labundi also has links to Nasa reports and other sites on global warming issues.<br />
<br />
I am not sure whether the black background on computer screens do much on saving energy, but I am sure that the web masters who created those web sites have the same purpose in raising people's awareness about global warming issues.<br />

By Ankur Dewani on 15 September 2008 at 04:17 PM

Considering that blackle works only on CRT it might be a waste when it comes to our new tech of Plasmas and LCD's using liquid display.... But Energy is only 1 part of the concern, there is also the myth of the internet bandwidth being limited.
( http://news.cnet.com/2100-1034_3-6237715.html ) and various articles covered in the past few months have all been focused around how Ineternet usage and bandwidth would be 50 times more than today and the content created then would jam the internet space.

Typically utilization of bandwidth and usage is directly proportional to the no.,quality & results of QUERIES that a user inputs from the moment he logs on. These queries can be as simple as searching, or as intense as uploading. At the end of it, its all about minimizing the no. of queries.

We are trying to research the potential ways of minimizing these queries by pre-defining most searched "keywords" & "categories".

By not entering any search query, or typing for searches you would be skipping multiple steps and help in saving energy and bandwidth.

If we all try and add to this pre-defined list of searches, we can help save far more energy, bandwidth and money.

Help us all move towards the green technology.

http://www.lazii.com
(currently in beta stage)

By Frank on 16 August 2008 at 01:48 PM

There are around 16 different versions of â��black googleâ�� online. The best one Iâ��ve found is www.cleanblack.com. Cleanblack is the only version that allows you to change the text colors of the google search results. Try it yourself by going to www.cleanblack.com/theme/

By Jason on 27 February 2008 at 05:44 PM

I've seen a few pages around which claim to help the environment in many ways, the main being - using a black screen energy consumption is reduced and therefore your "foot print" is reduced.

Personally I feel the savings are minimal and we need to take an additional more proactive approach. using http://www.regrowgle.com as a search portal does this. Any profits generated through searches on this site are actually reinvested into "green" projects such as forest regeneration. So in basic terms you are making positive changes to our world as you search. And the best this is - it costs you as a user - NOTHING!!

If for nothing else, at least give it a try and get your friends to have a go as well. There's nothing to loose, and a whole lot to gain.

Should you take Blackle, the Black Google's environmental claims seriously ?

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