An easy way to save energy from your desk…
August 30th, 2007 by Frank
Several friends mentioned this to me recently, so eventually I went off to see if it was true, and lo and behold it exists… a black Google. Not run by Google themmselves but powered by Google Custom Search.
It seems these guys believe that if Google were to make their homepage black instead of white, it would save a load of energy annually due to the amount of people who use Google everyday.
Well Google are unlikely to change from their flagship white, so Heap Media made their own black google. Called Blackle. It seems it all started with a blog post about the energy a black google page could save, and the author of that blog post now has an in depth explanation of the theory if you would like to read it.
While the concept has it’s sceptics, I like this quote from the Blackle website:
We encourage you to set Blackle as your home page. This way every time you load your Internet browser you will save a little bit of energy. Remember every bit counts! You will also be reminded about the need to save energy each time you see the Blackle page load.
Even as a reminder to save energy, the concept has it’s merits. So, will I be setting Blackle as my homepage? Er… I’m not sure. I tried it out, and maybe it’s because I’m so used to the white, but I found it uncomfortable to use. I will try it out some more, and if I can live with it I’ll use it. Hey, I’m just being honest!
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August 30th, 2007 at 11:37 am
Very intersesting, from a design point of view..
Tried it, and for some reason it ” feel’s ” like it has less features than google normal and won’t return as comprehensive a search.
Perhaps it’s just conditioning but white text on black only works in pretentious art books !
As for saving energy, if you’re serious …. ban blogging, 99.9% of it is inane drivel, gossiping, arguing and mudslinging that can easily be practiced offline !
August 30th, 2007 at 11:50 am
Would having a black screen really save energy? I mean the monitor is still on drawing power regardless of the colour of the screen. Something that gets on my nerves is people leaving tvs and other devices on standby; standby consumes half the power of on mode. And mobile chargers left plugged in-again a waste of energy.
Well, no days left to E.P. so hope you rockers and lovers out there have good weather for the festival. I’m off to Languedoc tomorrow so it’s au revoir from me for now. talk to you when I’m back.
August 30th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Ya, anyone with a white page should be ashamed of themselves. Ahem!
August 31st, 2007 at 1:11 am
I blogged this too but then I reach the Official Google Blog which points out that many flat-screens actually use as much energy or more to display black
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/is-black-new-green.html which references http://techlogg.com/content/view/360/31/ for values
September 4th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Thanks Joe - post updated!
Eoin - I was right all along…
September 4th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Jesus the power of suggestion. Anyone interested in buying a bridge? Frank how did the T-shirts go and did you have a good Picnic?
September 4th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Hey Green Ink! Picnic was AMAZING. Were you there? Incredible. Loved it. Will bug everyone with tales of it for 12 months now like I did last year.
I would have liked to have made more t-shirt sales than I did, however I only have myself to blame. Summer turned out to be an extremely busy period for me and FestivalShirts lacked my attention a little at several crucial moments
HOWEVER - the REACTION to the shirts I wore at EP was incredible. I was pretty impressed, if I do say so myself. And loads of poeple wanted to buy them at the last minute, but unfortunately last minute purchases are not feasible at the minute.
Several of my friends spotted people wearing the shirts, which was great to hear. i didn’t spot any myself, which was a pity - i really wanted to get a photo of me wearing my shirt next to a randomer who was also wearing one.
One day when it was a bit nippy there was a guy wearing a green coat zipped up over a red t-shirt and there was some yellow poking up… I was SO tempted to go up and ask him could I check his t-shirt, but I chickened out…
Anyway, all of the above convinced me that I NEED to be selling the shirts AT the Festivals. Loads of people said it to me, but it wasn’t feasible this year - however I now have plenty time to organise it, possibly for Festivals during the year, and definitely for Festivals next summer!
Bring on the Festivals!
September 4th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Yeah I was and it was great. Only saw a few bands but enjoyed the general atmosphere, especially the Body and Soul area, or Cork as it might have been called.
On the T-shirts: the thing with spreadshirt is you’re saving yourself overheads and outlay, and if you sell at the festival you’ll be paying pretty penny for your pitch.I think the theory’s great but turning your effort into buck is pretty hard.
September 4th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
Yeah, I know, that’s why it wasn’t really feasible this year… but based on my experience so far I think it’s worth investigating for next year…
Man I saw so much music I was pretty much at saturation point… pity I didn’t know you were there we could have met up. Mind you maybe we did, I met so many people…
September 6th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Blackle is really only effective for saving power with a CRT monitor. For LCDs, which most people seem to be using nowadays, the difference between black and white is slim to none.
Also, for LCD screens, I believe that whether black or white is more efficient depends on the specific screen, but as I said before, the difference is negligible.
August 17th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
There are around 16 different versions of “black google” online. The best one I’ve found is http://www.cleanblack.com. Cleanblack is the only version that allows you to change the text colors of the google search results. Try it yourself by going to http://www.cleanblack.com/theme/