Blackle
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New version of Google on the Web
Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year
As noted, an all white web page uses about 74 watts to display, while an all black page uses only 59 watts.
Take at look at Google, who gets about 200 million queries a day. Let's assume each query is displayed for about 10 seconds; that means Google is running for about 550,000 hours every day on some desktop. Assuming that users run Google in full screen mode, the shift to a black background will save a total of 15 (74-59) watts. That turns into a global savings of 8.3 Megawatt-hours per day, or about 3000 Megawatt-hours a year. Now take into account that about 25 percent of the monitors in the world are CRTs, and at 10 cents a kilowatt-hour, that's $75,000, a goodly amount of energy and dollars for changing a few color codes.
The site's only differing function from Google is the fact that its background is black and the results are white - making it a hard-to-read, but allegedly power-saving, adaptation of the world's favorite search site.
Apparently, the idea for the site was born from a 2007 blog post, Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year, which proposed that a black version of the Google search engine would save a fair bit of energy and the fact that "a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen." None of this has been proven, but the creator's of Blackle say they believe that there is value in the concept because even if the energy savings are small, they all add up.
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Jimmy now uses Blackle. Jimmy's eyes don't twitch. Jimmy thinks that this is a revolutionary website and Jimmy feels that this website helps him do his bit for the environment.
There are around 16 different versions of “black google” online. The best one I’ve found is 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 www.cleanblack.com/theme/
The claims are only true for CRT based monitors, which by the way use around 68% more power than LCD monitors. An LCD monitor works by having a large back-light which is constantly turned on glowing full frequency white light through every pixel. When a pixel needs to be black, an LCD filter layer changes polarity and blocks the white light. It doesnt turn the backlight off. When the blocking filter is turned off, white light comes through. In between the two layers are 3 colour filters, filtering red, green and blue. The blocking layer simply varies its opacity to adjust the intensity of light from each colour filter to create any colour. This means (and is proven in my source) that to display a black page on an LCD based screen (which the majority of the world is using, and you probably are too) it uses MORE power. Have a look at this source to verify my claims. Even if you do not believe the source, the way an LCD screen works cannot be disputed and is the fundamental element to my argument in disputing the "blackle" claim. :-) http://seanmichaelragan.com/html/[2009-03-26]_Power_use_of_white_vs_black_screens_in_LCDs_and_CRTs.shtml
Rally use full one
Jason 3 years ago
I prefer http://www.keepglobe.com over Blackle. They donate 50% of revenue to a green cause and it is hosted on a server that is powered by wind and sun energy. They also have an image search. Black search engines do not save energy as they claim and also my eyes twitch after seeing that black background.