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.
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I love Google and everything about it. Yay Google!
The people that promote this kind of ridiculousness don’t want to change the way THEY live. They just want you to change the way YOU live. Anyone that thinks humans waste too much energy are free to move to a cave in Idaho and become hunter-gatherers any time they like. Yet they never, ever do. Why? There’s no one to lecture in those types of places.
Maybe they should have shut down their servers instead.
Or not, because it would be much harder for me to fulfill my daily animated japanese tentacle intercourse needs. Thank you for not -really- caring, Google. This next fap is for you.
Really? Black uses more energy? I’m going to go get some darker wallpapers and screen savers.
Killing the Earth one processor cycle at a time,
Rocko
My father called me from a random hotel on Saturday and wanted to know why the f*ck Google’s screen was black.
I pointed him in your direction…Deceiver.com is our newest obsession.
Umm yeah..powered by the Columbia River. Those damn, dirty non-polluting, renewable energy guzzlers!
[Not a big fan of salmon, eh? -- Mgmt.]
Umm… non-polluting? Click here.
Facts mean nothing Mr. Scowl. Not when so many have so much tied up emotionally.