Ecoogler, the Ecological Search Engine, Has Difficulties Earning People’s Trust
by Petz Scholtus, Barcelona, Spain on 06. 5.08
Ecoogler, the ecological search engine, has created quite a bit of confusion online about whether it is real and whether Google is behind it or not. With Ecoogler, you can basically google the same as with Google or any other search engine, but in addition your clicks help reforesting the rainforest and safeguarding water resources in the Amazon, which nowadays represents one fourth of our planet’s fresh water reserves. How is this done?
Each search you do with Ecoogler counts for 1 leaf of a tree towards reforestation. 10,000 leaves (or searches) make up one tree to be planted in the Amazon. To make this happen, Ecoogler works with the Swiss non-profit association Aquaverde, whose mission since 2002 is to protect the Amazonian rainforest.
Some people believe that Ecoogler is a fake, as you can read on Digg, and others on Care2 are confused because it seems to open the Spanish site first before you can click on the English version.
The site WebLifeClub (in Spanish only) seems to shed some light on who is behind Ecoogler. One thing is clear: Ecoogler has nothing to do with Google. Apparently Ecoogle used Google and Adsense at first but somehow later switched to Yahoo…
The confusion probably comes from Ecogoole having been very inspired by Google when choosing its name as well as the graphics. According to WebLifeClub, the owner of the domain ecoogler.com is a company registered in Spain, who wants to help fight deforestation and does so by doing donations to Aquaverde. After all Ecoogle has sponsored 500 trees in March and another 500 trees in April this year, according to Aquaverde.
Other interesting facts WebLifeClub shares with us is that although the domain ecoogler.com was created in November 2007, traffic has only really picked up in February this year. Spanish-speaking countries mostly use this ecological search engine. The highest numbers of visits come from Spain, then Columbia, Mexico, Costa Rica and Argentina.
But try it out, it is definitely a nice idea. Why didn’t Google think of that? Thanks Marcus W. for the tip! ::Ecoogler
More about Google on TreeHugger:
How Green is Google?
Google to Tackle Global Warming
Black Google Saves Energy
How's the Google Plug-in Hybrid Fleet Doing?
Google Founders & Larry Brilliant on Saving the World
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
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- Wealthy Countries Should Pay ‘Rainforest Utility Bills’ for Ecosystem Services Rendered: Prince Charles
- 7 Ways Save the World with Google Earth on Your iPhone
- Think Eco-Logical Pushes IT Sustainability Home with Businesses
Delta Airlines Takes Small Paper-less Step Towards Greening
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Great idea, but... They should fix their encoding if they want to display international sites properly. At the moment it is unusable for non-latin-alphabet results.
They ought to team up with Blackle.com - plant trees and a bit of electricity.
odd, number of trees planted 1766, number to next 982, so I refreshed and the latter number went down.... refreshed.... and the number went back up....without the number of trees planted increasing>
"Ecoogler"? What a terrible name and completely uncreative. Good idea, though.
Same as Ecocho... pretty boring...
1 tree for 10,000 searches doesn't seem that generous to me. A comparable search engine that uses google, offers 1 penny to a non-profit of your choosing. Even if I did a 100 searches a day, which seems somewhat high, it would take 100 days to plant a single tree. I know there are other programs which will plant many more trees for an equivalent effort.
Obviously I like the idea but I think Ecoogler missed the mark. Also switching to the yahoo engine is not a plus for me, if they had kept using the google engine I could switch my habit much more easily. As it stands now I think there are much better alternatives.
Try Search and Give instead. Every search you make, is worth one penny to a cause of your choice.
Green causes include:
Conservation International Foundation
Sierra Club Foundation
World Wildlife Fund, Inc.
Among much more. You need a Live ID, and can get up to $5 a month. Pretty nice.
http://searchandgive.com/