Kind Search Engines

There are a few obvious things you can deduce from my blog. Two of them that are relevant to this post are:

1. I am getting married in the near future (FYI 4 months)
2. I use the internet

Based on those two facts you can extend to the logical conclusion that I use search engines a lot. The most popular engine is even considered a verb in our modern language... Google. I even say it when I speak to people, "Did you google x, y, or z?" However I don't use Google. My homepage is set to GoodSearch.

The presented layout takes a little getting used to if you normally use Google but the benefits extend beyond the search results. GoodSearch was created after its founders realized that some of the revenue from the $8 billion dollar a year search engine advertising industry could be used for charity. They figure everyone has a cause they are passionate about so why not let people search for information like they normally would but change the format so that some of the advertising dollars generated by that search could go to charity. You can pick your own charity. Good search donates 50% of its revenue to charities and schools.

My charity is set to El Puente - The Bridge. This is the organization me and my wedding guests are doing a volunteer work day with while we are in Costa Rica. We are also gathering wish list items to bring down for them. So far The Bridge has raised $40 with GoodSearch. It doesn't seem like much but it adds up. The ASPCA has raised $5,870 and Save Darfur has raised $3,550.

I had saveandsearch which is powered by Google up here yesterday. I have since removed that search engine from this post because apparently the black screen consumes more energy with LCD screens and these screens are proliferating a lot of computers now. So while the concept was good for older computers, it is not a real environmental benefit now. Here is an accompanying source about black screens not being the new green.

First an article on Google's blog, "Is black the new green?"

And a more analytical piece testing out the energy consumption between the two from techologg.com, "Black vs. Google power savings - the final test"

Someone told me about my misinformation about the benefits of saveandsearch and did not want to leave a contradictory comment because they didn't want to seem snarky. I told him that is fine because information is knowledge and is always welcomed here. I am glad he did provide me with sources. :)