It’s without a doubt that Google reigns king over the internet realm, as he has successfully manipulated our minds to think not of ‘search engines’ but only of him instead. We do not trust Bing or Ask Jeeves (anyone remember him?) and instead we turn to the one who is our homepage and has access to our souls. Because let’s face it, your search history reveals more about you than you’d like to admit. But the thing is, we have no reason to move to Bing because we don’t crave a different pretty picture of the day. Seeing far off destinations is nice, sure, but we haven’t left our bedrooms all weekend so there’s no reason to entertain false hope. And although Jeeves added a human element to the faceless machines we spend our lives on, we’re so far gone we don’t really crave that pseudo connection any longer.
(photo courtesy of EnvironmentFreak)
However, there is a search engine that could potentially change our minds about where we search for the cheapest train tickets and the meaning of life. No, it will never replace the phrase ‘I’ll Google it’ but it could replace your default homepage, which has probably been the same for so long you’ll actually have to remind yourself how to do it.
Ecosia is a search engine that lets you save the planet from wherever you are, and the best thing about it is you don’t even need to get up from your chair. When you search with Ecosia the money made from adverts will be used to plant trees, so next time your parents say you’re doing nothing useful on your laptop tell them this (#internetgeneration).
The search engine has a handy little tree counter so you can keep track of how many trees you yourself have contributed. And if you have your doubts about whether the money really is being donated, Ecosia provide their Donation Receipts and Business Reports for you to see online. They currently have three projects in Burkina Faso, Peru and Madagascar, which you can see updates of on their blog.
(photo courtesy of WeForest)
Although Ecosia is a great service, I’d still recommend using Google Scholar for any essays but it’s perfect for general searches and all those times you type in ‘facebook’, ‘fb’ or even ‘fcaboko’ because www. seems like too much effort.
Switching to Ecosia is a really rewarding experience, especially after a few months when you see the number of trees you’ve effectively planted in different parts of the world. It’s also great to read all of Ecosia’s updates about how their work is helping the environment and know it’s possible to make an impact in a simple way.