"Reaction [beta]"
Blackle 1 Aug 2007
It's always nice to beat the British press to a story...
Over the last couple of days, a number of UK newspapers have been reporting about how a black Google would save 750 megawatt hours a year worldwide. We first picked up the story back in April (although, to be honest, the story actually originated in January with ecoloron's original post).
The only thing that's actually "news" in this week's stories is that someone has actually gone and created a black version of Google now. It's called Blackle and it's worth taking a look at - although at the moment it's offline, presumably as a result of all the attention.
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9 comments so far
Matt 1 Aug 2007 09:30 AM
Check out ripple.org as well.
It generates money for Oxfam and other charities to fight poverty.
Simon 1 Aug 2007 10:12 AM
Thanks for the tip Matt :-)
Elwyn Jenkins 2 Aug 2007 12:21 AM
I think to assert there is any energy savings in a Black Google is simply a matter of wishful thinking. My LCD screen actually does the same amount of work to picture a black pixel as it does a white pixel. AND most computers now are running LCD. So go figure!
Simon 2 Aug 2007 12:34 PM
Elwyn: Thanks for your comment. One of ecoIron's readers plugged in his watt-meter and compared the energy generated from a black screen vs. a white screen when viewed on both a CRT and LCD monitor. Here are his findings:
CRT:
Black Screen: 77W
White Screen: 90W
Energy Savings: 14%
LCD:
Black Screen: 33W
White Screen: 36W
8% energy savings
...So there will be some energy savings for users viewing Blackle via an LCD monitor...but nothing spectacular.
Angela 3 Aug 2007 01:45 PM
I prefer using www.Darkoogle.com as their text are green which reduce eye strain. So instead of saving energy from our monitor, it also save our user’s eye energy.
Jason 1 Sep 2007 11:51 PM
There is also greygle.com that uses a grey background and dark text for those have difficulty reading a black background with light text. They also have uk.greygle.com for a search that is more focused on UK sites.
Dave Harper 4 Sep 2007 10:52 AM
I've just noticed that the previously UK-only site www.BlackGoogle.co.uk has just launched a fully functioning US version on:
www.BlackGoogle.co.uk/HomePageUSA.htm
blackle 9 Dec 2007 01:03 PM
Hi, I visited
http://www.blackles.eu/ (and national variants of blackles.eu - blackle.com, blackle.cz etc.)
and available blogs about it. They said that blackle was created for reminder us saving energy sources of our Earth. Thay say (and show links to proof of it) that CRT monitors eat really less energy when users have black background. Thay also say that this is not one hunderd per cent working on LCD. LCD have different system and is no point use black screen. So if you will use it on your LDC so it is just your demonstration of yours ecological thinking.
For me is this type of giving information to public all right. I have finished electrotechnic college and if they do not say that it is working same way on CRT like on LCD, then is it ok for me. They seems fair for me.
About results of search they say that it is working on Google custom search base. So if you use blackles.eu or blackle.com you will take same results like from google.com. If you will use www.blackle.cz you will take same results like from www.google.cz etc. I tested it and it is true.
In english speaking part of world is common used blackles.eu and blackle.com. Especially in Australia!
In middle east europe - czech and slowak republic is now very popular blackle - http://www.blackle.cz/ . In Greece is now very popular blackle.com. Who now why�
In portugese speaking part of world is favorite www.blackles.eu in Brasil. It is because in official media was campaign with cooperation with some universities to supported using blackles. In same campaign they talk about problems with fell of wildwood in south america.
That is all. For me and my friends is www.blackles.eu and its national variants really good search engine with sense to use it. But thousands people thousands meaning. So let�s check glogs on the web (specially texts on wikipedia) and let�s make your own opinion :).
Have a nice day!
peblo 25 Dec 2007 08:09 PM
I preffer to use this web:
http://www.blackoogle.co.uk
Is the same as blackle but with the English google search engine.