The official Google blog, 8/9/07:

Reducing climate change by saving energy is an important effort we should all join, and that’s why we’re very glad to see the innovative thinking going into a variety of solutions. One idea, suggested by the site called “Blackle” (which is not related to Google, by the way, though the site does use our custom search engine), is to reduce energy used by monitors by providing search with a black background. We applaud the spirit of the idea, but our own analysis as well as that of others shows that making the Google homepage black will not reduce energy consumption. To the contrary, on flat-panel monitors (already estimated to be 75% of the market), displaying black may actually increase energy usage. Detailed results from a new study confirm this.

Google today:

They know it’s an empty gesture, but they’re doing it anyway. Happy Earth Hour, suckers!

(Hat tip: Valleywag)

P.S. According to Harper’s Magazine, Google is an “energy glutton.” Check out the blueprint of their server farm in The Dalles, Oregon, home of “some of the cheapest electricity in North America.” It’s powered not by magic pixie dust (my longtime theory), but by the Columbia River. Every time you search Google Images for pre-pregnancy Britney pics, God kills a kitten and Google kills a salmon.