'Green' search engine turns ads into offsets

16 April 2008

A new search engine that aims to "make a difference for climate change" has been launched across 14 countries.

The Sydney-based firm behind Ecocho promises to plant trees according to how many searches are made through it.

The results are provided by either Yahoo or Google, depending on user preference, and income is generated through a slice of the search giants' advertising revenue.

Founder Tim MacDonald said that his four-person team would be disappointed if their site did not result in the planting of at least tens of thousands of trees.

"In Australia alone, we conduct close to 800 million Internet searches each month and if we could capture just 1% of that traffic, we would make a significant contribution towards lowering the impact of harmful greenhouse gas emissions," he said.

Upon entering the site, the default search setting is Yahoo. Explanatory text attached to the search engines' logos reveals that while every thousand searches via Yahoo will yield "up to two trees", searches via Google will deliver only half as many plantings.

The results will be audited by KPMG, with Ecocho planning to divert 70% of the site's income into forestry projects.

Category: Google, Search engines, Yahoo