Ecocho and the wider issue of manipulating eco guilt

April 23rd, 2008 Posted in News

While we all have a semblance of eco-awareness, how far does this awareness go to changing our activities from day to day? One search engine based in Australia obviously thought that people’s eco-guilt would lead them to using their ‘green’ search engine. Unfortunately, this new site has been kicked out of Google for using the search engine giant’s technology and advertising system.

This eco-friendly search engine named Ecocho.com.au was launched just one week ago. Its specialist slant was that for every thousand searches, two trees would be planted. Seemingly however the site acted purely as a gateway for searchers to use Yahoo or Google as Ecocho used their results and advertising layout.

It is definitely questionable how green this form of searching really is, whether it is any more environmentally friendly than a Google search is difficult to quantify. Added to the dubious practices of Ecocho, its founder Tim Macdonald is already in trouble with Google for unscrupulous methods of working while Mr Macdonald was in the search engine optimisation industry.

The crux is that compensation cannot be directly made in return for placing adverts according to Google regulations. Ecocho, by promising to plant trees for each search have broken this rule. Mr Macdonald however in a tirade against Google said that these rules and regulations were not being applied in a consistent manner. He also stated that Ecocho consulted Google whilst in development and there were no problems at that stage.

The wider issue is that should green search engines really be in existence? Google has green initiatives in place already; while these sites claiming to be ‘specialist’ are purely cashing in on the eco-guilt that many people now have. The choice of course is down to the average computer user; rather than using these sites that have a negligent benefit to the environment, people would be better changing their lives so they operate in a more eco-friendly manner. A greater difference can be made by changing the way we live rather than the way we search.