I’ve gotten a number of emails, and people seem to be getting excited about a website named blackle.com. I finally decided to look into it, and what I find is a little disappointing.
Don’t get me wrong. Blackle is an ingenious idea… for the founders. It preys on the guilt we all feel as we use more energy and natural resources in order to do what we need to do from day to day. The premise is that by simply changing to a black background, we can each save a little bit of energy each time we use Google. Given how many people use Google everyday, the potentially energy savings are can appear to be high.
Blackle.com is simply a Google Custom Search placed on a black background. Anyone in the Adsense program can get a Google Custom Search bar, and get paid by Google everytime someone uses it. So Blackle is clearly a great way to make some quick cash with only a little effort, particularly if you can get people to use it regularly.
It also preys on our inherent laziness. It’s easy to change our homepage, and so with just a push of the button, we line the pockets of Blackle’s founders.
But is the claim even true? Like all things, not everything is so simple. You will save 5-20% if you are using a old-style CRT monitor,. According to recent data, less than 25% of the web use CRT monitors. If you are using an LCD screen, you might be actually using MORE energy. LCD monitors work by having a continuously on backlight, and energy used to block the light from coming through the LCD screen to our eyes. Some case reports of people testing their own monitors has shown that this energy increase may be measurable. By the way, if you are using a CRT monitor you are also using about 5 times more energy CONTINUOUSLY compared to an LCD monitor. If energy conservation is really your concern, it might be time to switch. LCD prices have come down a lot.
To make things more complicated, the monitor is only a small component of the total amount of energy used when you surf a website. Energy is used by every server, every router, every wire that the data traverses to get to service point and back. So, not only are you sending data packets to the Google search engine server, but also to the Blackle server as well. Google maintains a huge infrastructure of servers placed all over the world so that the closest server will serve up the page to optimize speed. Google also has made multiple efforts to be carbon neutral, and strategically builds server facilities near environmentally friendly energy sources such as hydroelectric power.
Overall, I would only consider using Blackle if you have a CRT screen, and even then I’m not sure it will make much of a difference. I’d suggest that if you feel guilty about the environmental impact you are making on this world (as you should), then I’d suggest getting involved more pro-actively.
References:
- Wikipedia – Blackle
- Triplepundit.com – Askpablo – Black Google
- Seopher.com – Blackle – the evil environmentally friendly search engine
- Discussion thread on forums.techarp.com
- techlogg.com – Black Google power saving figures are wrong
- Greenbang.com – In the dark: Blackle may not save as energy as hoped
Newspaper Articles:
Very happy to find your references to Blackle. It seems reasonably logical but facts are what I was looking for. Thanks!
I see no ads on their website, so how exactly are they making money with adsense?
The Google Custom Search is an Adsense program, where you can put a search bar on your website, and everytime somebody uses it you can get paid by Google.
Hope that helps,
Dave
Thanks Dave, now I feel like a bit of a dill for reading up on adsense in Wikipedia before I made my stupid comment:
“A companion to the regular AdSense program, AdSense for search lets website owners place Google search boxes on their pages. When a user searches the web or the site with the search box, Google shares any ad revenue it makes from those searches with the site owner. However, only if the ads on the page are clicked, the publisher is paid. Adsense does not pay publishers for mere searches.”
Thanks for the quick response.
I like the idea, although try checking out http://www.watt2search for better colors and more accurate search (try searching “toy car” in blackle, google, and watt2search). Blackle twists the results.
Doesn’t really matter if they get paid does it? I mean you are going to be searching anyway.
Sorry, I meant watt2search.com
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Blackle may not be a scam, but I doubt you’ll like reading white fonts on a black background
I use and prefer Greenle.
Link : Greenle
i wudnt call it a scam, i did say its a smart idea:) I had heard of blackle.com (the eco friendly version of google), but now they have launched blackle games i dunno if any energy is saved, but atleast it doesnt hurt the eye, lol
I knew this piece of shit was a scam the second it came out, If people are going to nitpick at energy savings like this we truly are putting our head in the sand
more public transport and energy efficient house is the only way .. this is stupid, the sort of things unemployed people with dredlocks tell you to use, while all day they sit around a burning fire
There are around 18 different versions of black google online. The best one Ive found is wwwdotcleanblackdotcom. Cleanblack is the only version that allows you to change the text colors of the google search results. Try it yourself by going to wwwdotcleanblackdotcom
Thanks for sharing your information and idea.
Just came on research about if it’s blackle can save energy of the monitor consumption.
Well, i went to 2 blogs of post about blackle.
Actually both had some points~ i will take note and continue more research in the energy-saving.
Outstanding internet site!! Hope to definitely come back again soon!!
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With the advent of OLED, this makes more sense if Blackle has a “true dark theme”. If it’s just a dark color, it’s not much help.