Friday, March 26, 2010

ecosia

They didn't pay me to post this--but it's a greenish search engine--Toby

Go to ecosia.org

What Is Ecosia About?
Ecosia is an eco-friendly Internet search engine backed by Yahoo, Bing and the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). It basically works like any other search engine but, unlike others, Ecosia gives at least 80% of its advertising revenue to a rainforest protection program run by the WWF.
Because of this, Ecosia users can save about two square meters of rainforest with every search they do – without paying anything. Furthermore, all Ecosia servers run on green electricity, so they do not cause any CO2 emissions. By using Ecosia, you can turn your web searches green.
How Does Ecosia Generate Income?

Yahoo and Bing not only help us to provide excellent search results; they also supply us with the sponsored links that we need to generate advertising revenue. Sponsored links are short, relevant text ads, which are placed by companies aiming to sell their products and services to users of the search engine. Companies pay for each click on their sponsored link and every click on these ads generates a few cents of revenue for the search engine.
About 2% of Ecosia searches lead to a click on a sponsored link. Doing a mixed calculation of normal clicks and clicks on sponsored links, Ecosia earns about 0.13 Euro cents per search. We donate at least 80% of this income to the WWF. Thanks to these donations, we can save about two square meters with every search.
How Does Ecosia Save The Rainforest?
Ecosia does not conduct the rainforest protection scheme itself; instead we donate to a rainforest protection program run by the WWF. The current WWF project is located in Juruena National Park in the Amazon region of Brazil. Click here to learn more about the current rainforest protection project.
Why Should I Use Ecosia?

Every year a rainforest area larger than England is burned or cut down. Therefore the deforestation of the tropical rainforests is the single most important source of CO2 emissions in the world and about 20% of all global CO2 emissions are caused by rainforest deforestation.
Each Ecosia search protects a piece of rainforest, so by making Ecosia your search engine, you can actually help the environment one search at a time. An average internet user can protect about 2,000 square meters of rainforest every year by using Ecosia – this is about the size of an ice hockey field.
By making Ecosia your default search engine, you can turn your web searches green, reduce your carbon footprint and make a real difference to the planet. Instead of causing CO2 emissions with your searches, you can actually help to avoid climate change because your searches will help to save endangered rainforests.
Ecosia is also the best choice if you are concerned about privacy. Some search engine companies store your web searches for several months and even analyze them to create a profile of you. They sometimes even sell this information to other companies. Ecosia, in contrast, deletes all user-related data within a maximum of 48 hours.
How Can I Make Ecosia My Search Engine?

Whenever you want to search with Ecosia, you can simply go to the Ecosia homepage, type in your search terms and click the search button.
However, there is also a more convenient way to use Ecosia. Just click on the “install” link at the bottom of the Ecosia homepage and the Ecosia search will be added to your browser. You can then conveniently type your searches into your browser’s search box, so you don’t have to visit the Ecosia homepage every time you want to search for something. Once you have installed Ecosia, you can also see how much rainforest you have already saved.
Help To Spread The Word!
If you like Ecosia, we would be delighted if you recommend us to others. Since we donate most of our revenue, we cannot afford to spend much money on advertising. So we need YOU to spread the word. Please click on the “share” link to see how you can help spread the Ecosia gospel. We would dearly appreciate your help.
Remember that every new Ecosia user helps to save about 2,000 square meters of rainforest every year. If only 1% of global internet users accessed Ecosia for their web searches, we could save a rainforest area as big as Switzerland every single year. Together we can really make a difference!

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