Green Search Engine and green email service

Green search engines (i.e., those that run on renewable or carbon off-set power, and donate a substantial portion of advertising revenue to sustainable causes) are a relatively new concept–but now the world’s first green search engine, Treehoo.com, has taken it one step further, with a green email service.

The Swedish company estimates that for every 20 emails sent by users of their service, one tree could be planted–not an insignificant potential, considering the hundreds of emails sent and received by many of us every day. Treehoo is the brainchild of Swedish Ph.D. student Pedro Bentancour Garin.  Barely a year after its launch, Treehoo has users in more than 100 countries.

– from earthtechling.com

Ecosia, launched out of Berlin, Germany, “is the brainchild of a group of green-minded friends who wanted to make search engines more eco-friendly.” So what supposedly makes it so green? This outfit says its servers, for starters, run on green electricity, which is probably generated from carbon credits. Bigger than this though, is the fact Ecosia “will give away most of its income to an environmental protection project run by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).” Each search reportedly will save “about two square meters of rainforest” as users will be served up results alongside sponsored links. These links, typical in mainstream search engines, generate a small amount of revenue each time they are clicked on.

– from earthtechling.com