Ogre Forums

WEBSITE OF THE DAY - ecocho.com
Search the web, plant some trees. Everybody happy.

Ecocho is the world's first environmentally friendly search engine. Set up by a bunch of green Aussies, it utilises Google and Yahoo technologies to deliver excellent results and for every 1,000 searches, two new trees will be planted.

The economics of it are all a bit beyond me - something to do with retiring carbon foot print credits on a global exchange.
Or something.

But, to be honest, I don't really care how it works, I just think it's a great idea.

Bookmark it now - it'll cost you nothing and deliver the same results you always get.

www.ecocho.com

Unfortunately, Google has decided to stop Ecocho from using its search technology.

Furthermore, Ecocho's founder, Tim Macdonald, is also the co-founder of Found Agency, a high-profile search engine optimisation company that has been penalised by Google for breaking its rules in the past.

Google Australia spokesman Rob Shilkin said Ecocho was barred because it broke Google's AdSense policies.

Google's policy is that publishers running Google advertising must not "compensate users for viewing ads or performing searches, or promise compensation to a third party for such behaviour". By promising to plant trees, Ecocho broke those rules.

"The site was in clear violation of our terms of service and we had previously warned the owner of past violations," Shilkin said.

In May last year, Macdonald's company, Found Agency, saw its Google ranking tumble after it was caught unfairly manipulating its search rankings.

At the time, Found's other co-founder, Zak Asani, admitted to the Search Engine Room website that the company liked to test Google's boundaries.

"We've got between 1500 and 2000 websites running at any one time that we use to test the boundaries," he said.

Google's policy is that publishers running Google advertising must not "compensate users for viewing ads or performing searches, or promise compensation to a third party for such behaviour". By promising to plant trees, Ecocho broke those rules.

A new Australian green search engine seeking to capitalise on web surfers' eco-guilt has been barred by Google from using its search technology and advertising platform.

I would rather support something which does *something* positive to the environment, than not at all.

I found an article which contains similar text as quoted above

The benefit of specialist green search engines is questionable because Google itself has invested heavily in green initiatives. Google claims it is carbon neutral, whereas the servers powering sites such as Ecocho are not.

purchase carbon offsets for the emissions that we can't reduce directly.

Would you rather they didn't do anything about their carbon emissions?

warmi wrote:

Would you rather they didn't do anything about their carbon emissions?

Yeah, well they are not doing anything.

So called growth of efficient green technologies will be dictated by market and market alone.

Unless it becomes profitable to do this stuff, it won't matter how many charitable contributions Google and others offer.

KungFooMasta wrote:More people are starting to care about the environment, and are more willing to support companies that are less pollutant.

syedhs wrote:I am wary of such offer of 'planting trees per 1000 search' because as I asked earlier, how can you ascertain that the pledge is fulfilled? Or is it just like a light joke that nobody should really pay attention to?