Google Goes Blackle for the Environment

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I turned on my coputer this morning and instead of opening the internet to my Google home page (White) it opened to a page called "Blackle" which was black.

I thought, hmm, they do funny things with the Google letters for holidays, so maybe today is Blackle Wednesday or something. I "Blackled" it and found out they changed the page to black to save energy.

Blackle Explanation from one Blogger

Does this make sense? Any teeth to this and if so, does it make enough of a differrence for web developers to switch?

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I just Googled Google and when I click on the first selection it takes me to the white Google page, so apparently we still have a choice. The new search from Google has the Blackle.com address, not google.

Also, when we have a choice for skins, like I think we do (or did at one time) here on A2K, then we could all contribute to the energy savings by using the black skin, right? So, we could participate that way, too.

(Although I find the black page harder to read.)

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Anyone familiar with the workings of energy that could explain the black page using less? Or, whether or not it is that significant?

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A typical CRT monitor has 3 "guns" that fire at the back of the screen. "White" uses all 3 guns at the same spot/time. "Black" uses none of them. (all other colors are some variation of the three). Since each gun uses eletricity having a black background will always be the most energy efficent.

I would point out though that the numbers they use are based on a CRT. My LCD panel never uses more than 32 watts so it is always more efficent than a typical CRT with a black background. The more energy efficent the monitors are to begin with, the less energy is saved with the black background.

If the push is for energy efficency then the ideal would be for everyone to use a laptop with an LCD screen. The average laptop uses much less energy than the average desktop.

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http://www.blackle.com/about/

Quote:

How is Blackle saving energy?

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." Roberson et al, 2002

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 the popularity of the search engine. Since then there has been skepticism about the significance of the energy savings that can be achieved and the cost in terms of readability of black web pages.

We believe that there is value in the concept because even if the energy savings are small, they all add up. Secondly we feel that seeing Blackle every time we load our web browser reminds us that we need to keep taking small steps to save energy.

How can you help?

We encourage you to set Blackle as your home page. This way every time you load your Internet browser you will save a little bit of energy. Remember every bit counts! You will also be reminded about the need to save energy each time you see the Blackle page load.

Help us spread the word about Blackle by telling your friends and family to set it as their home page. If you have a blog then give us a mention. Or put the following text in your email signature: "Blackle.com - Saving energy one search at a time".

There are a lot of great web sites about saving energy and being more environmentally friendly. They are full of great tips covering the little things that we can all do to make a difference today. Try Blackling "energy saving tips" or visit treehugger.com a great blog dedicated to environmental awareness.

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Blackle is not from Google, it's a third party site trying to profit (they receive money from the search ads through AdSense Search) off the concept since it (the concept) has strong grass-roots meme potential.

It won't save the environment, but will make its operators a few bucks.

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How can a third party site take over Google? Why would Google allow that to automatically happen if Google is my home page?

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uh, Seth cub did it.....

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squinney wrote:

How can a third party site take over Google? Why would Google allow that to automatically happen if Google is my home page?

Sounds like your computer is taken over, not Google. That's a classic spyware technique.

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uh, may I repeat that Seth cub did it?

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Hey squinney, I just got this awesome idea. I bet you Bi-Polar Bear knows how it happened. You should ask him.

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I thank both of you gentlemen for your patience with me. Very Happy

Third party... got it now Craven. I thought you were saying they took over Google, not my computer.

Bear - Knowing Seth, and knowing you, I thought you were being a "smarty" and claiming our son took over Google. Not an unreasonable assumption. I naturally expect great things from him and perhaps one day....

Now, can you please have him change it back before I get home? I can't read it in black background. The additional reading I have done on the subject indicates the energy savings is not as claimed.

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you insult me and then have the nerve to ask that? ask him yourself miss thing.... Evil or Very Mad

( you try to be a decent bear Rolling Eyes

)

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Bi-Polar Bear wrote:

( you try to be a decent bear )

When was that, Bear.....I missed it.

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For you Miss Smarty Aleck Wabbitt

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/stevetheq/catsoldbum.jpg

the old cat's bum....

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Bi-Polar Bear wrote:

For you Miss Smarty Aleck Wabbitt

the old cat's bum....

Jealousy Land...the ugliest kingdom of them all....

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Craven de Kere wrote:

Blackle is not from Google, it's a third party site trying to profit (they receive money from the search ads through AdSense Search) off the concept since it (the concept) has strong grass-roots meme potential.

It won't save the environment, but will make its operators a few bucks.

Now that makes sense. I tried it a few weeks ago after seeing an ad for it, and it seemed to work slower than the usual google. That didn't make sense to me.

Google Goes Blackle for the Environment

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