What if you could make the world a greener place merely by using the right search engine? That's the question posed by Ecosia, a newcomer to a field dominated by Google. Is this just a gimmick? Or can we really make this a greener world simply by clicking?
Competing with Google in any capacity is becoming increasingly difficult to do. Whether it's the tech giant's new Android technology gaining ground on the ever-popular iPhone, the company's Fast Flip news service compiling more daily website hits than the actual websites from which the news articles featured originated, or Google Voice giving conventional cell phone service providers a run for their money, it's clear that Google dominates at just about every endeavor.
First and foremost, however, Google began as a pretty basic search engine, and this service continues to be at the forefront of it all. How many other search engines can boast 3 million users or 2 billion searches each and every day? Surely not very many, which is why "Googling" something has become part of our lexicon for the twenty-first century. After all, have you ever heard someone say they "Yahooed" a term or "Ask-Jeeved" song lyrics? It's pretty doubtful.
The point, of course, is that fledgling search engines must have a "gimmick" or rather, something that makes them stand out; something that gives them the initial attention they need to get the ball rolling. Perhaps it's unfair to say, but it seems as if the easiest way to do this these days is by claiming to be green or environmentally conscious. We've all heard the unsettling statistics about global warming and perhaps some of us have even noticed the difference in weather in our neck of the woods.
At a time when many of us are educating ourselves on how to be more eco-conscious and trying to make a genuine effort to recycle, reserve, and reuse, countless companies are using the green angle as a marketing tactic -- claiming to be green, energy efficient, or sustainable, without really being any of those things. Well, there's a new search engine that hopes to one day rival Google, and it claims that its users will save two square meters of rain forest each and every time they submit a search. Is this a ploy to get more users, or is there any truth to this claim?
Search Engine News 
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