In our line of work, we use a lot of search engines to quench our thirst for curiosity. There are search engines that focus on various technical aspects like DuckDuckGo’s focus on web-privacy. However, none of these popular search engines focus on the environmental aspect. Well, not “Ecosia”! The Bing-based search engine is all about the betterment of the environment.
Browsing through the App Store on my iPhone, I came across this unique search engine, “Ecosia”. According to its claims, every time you search for a query on this search engine, you help the planting of a new tree in this world somewhere.
Now, I installed the app on my iPhone X and it works pretty well. I have been using it for an hour or so and it works like any other mobile web browser like Safari or Chrome. However, the ad revenue generated by each user’s search goes towards the planting of trees around the world.
The organization publishes monthly financial reports to show how the funds from the searches generate and where do they actually go. So, there is full transparency on that part. Also, according to the team’s claims, the search engine does not sell any data to any third-party trackers. It even unlinks the details of the users from the searches within one week’s time.
On opening the app, there is a home page that shows the number of trees that were planted with the ad revenue of the Ecosia users. From here, you can type to search your query. You can also open multiple tabs to browse various websites simultaneously. Now, the browsing speed is fairly good, but not up to the mark like other high-end mobile browsers.
Now, It is quite good to see that organizations are now taking the environment seriously and trying to improve it. According to Ecosia’s website, their servers that power the searches run on 100% renewable energy. Also, recently, the organization crossed the 100 million mark and it is growing continuously.
Apart from the iOS app, you also have a Chrome extension that you can add to your browser. The mobile app is also available for Android devices, which you can get from the Play Store.
So, instead of using search engines that collect your private data and track you around the web, why not use one that helps to change the world for the better?
