eWEEK Europe UK: Microsoft-Backed Green Search Engine Attacks Google

Ecosia is being endorsed by the WWF and billed as an "eco-friendly" search engine but it is also based on Microsoft technology
A search engine project backed by the World Wildlife Fund, and based on technology from Microsoft and Yahoo, heavily criticises the carbon intensity of Google's search infrastructure and also contains a sly dig at Apple.

The Ecosia search engine announced this week in the run up to the UN climate talks in Copenhagen is being billed as an environmentally friendly application which donates 80 percent of the income generated from sponsored links to help preserve rainforests.

However, while the search site appears to have the highest of environmental aims, a video created to promote its launch is more partisan. The site is based on Microsoft's Bing search engine, and its video depicts Google investors as fat, cigar smoking figures while also criticising the search giant for the carbon intensity of its technology.

"Google has grown into one of the most profitable businesses in the world and its investors have made a fortune. But although Google's investors might be happy to keep counting out their money, maybe they should take notice of a few unresolved issues in the search engine universe," the video states. "For example there are a lot of C02 emissions caused by the search engines and their massive server networks. Some experts claim that a single Google search causes the same amount of emissions as a lightbulb does in an entire hour."

The video goes on to depict the CO2 emerging from the "massive server networks" by using images that clearly resemble Apple's iMac desktop machines rather than any PC that could be construed to run Microsoft's Windows.

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