Google Clarifies “Black Google” Blackle May Not Save Energy
September 3rd, 2007If you make the background color of your monitor screen black, does it help to save energy? I was recently introduced to Blackle, a site using the Google custom search with a black background which claims to save energy. But Google does not seem to agree.
The Blackle screen displays “181,595.807 Watt hours saved” right now. Blackle encourages you to set it as your home page, so you save energy everytime you load your Internet browser. How does it work?
“Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. “Image displayed is primarily a function of the user’s color settings and desktop graphics, as well as the color and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen.”
It originated from the idea if Black Google would save 750 Megawatt-hours a year and now they have a Wiki-esque post that covers the full story on Black Google and a lot of new similar “colored” Google services which have appeared.
Now Google has responded on their official Google blog on the energy saving issue.
We applaud the spirit of the idea, but our own analysis as well as that of others shows that making the Google homepage black will not reduce energy consumption. To the contrary, on flat-panel monitors (already estimated to be 75% of the market), displaying black may actually increase energy usage. Detailed results from a new study confirm this.
Now you decide. Hey! there is a Blackle India too!
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I read about this few months back.I think its just a way of publisizing Blackle…and this posts clarifies that.Thanks.The blog is really informative.I’m a regular reader now!
The idea carried some weight but practically it saves a minimal amount of energy on CRT display, and very little or no energy on LCDs. Also bad for the eyes, because light on dark is hard to read
I like the blackle concept; the guy who made it was smart;) recently i was searching around and found Blackle games; nice concept, play games and save the world lol
All “black Google” sites don’t actually save that much in power. But if you still want to do it because you think that your eyes are less strained, use http://www.pifty.com At least they give some of their earnings to a real company who is actually doing something good for the environment.
There are around 16 different versions of “black google” online. The best one I’ve found is http://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 http://www.cleanblack.com/theme/
Those having CRT user black google and those having LCD use white google :P
The best site of there for this is called Vimle. The white version is at vimle.com and is best for people who prefer white, or use a newer LCD monitor. The black version is at b.vimle.com and is best for people who prefer black, or use an older CRT monitor to save energy.