[LINK] Blackle: turn Google black to save the planet

[Stilgherrian]

Sydney-based Heap Media is getting attention thanks to Blackle -- their
front-end onto Google which turns the website background black. In theory,
this saves energy because a monitor uses more power when displaying a
white/light image than a black/dark one.

    http://www.blackle.com
    http://www.blackle.com/about/

And the original theory about a black Google saving power:

http://ecoiron.blogspot.com/2007/01/black-google-would-save-3000-megawatts.h
tml

Currently Blackle's home page says "113,834.304 Watt hours saved. Two things
strike me here.

  * 113kWh isn't much electricity. That's one server with a 500W power
    supply running for about 10 days -- or a fortnight, say, because it
    probably isn't fully loaded.

  * This is a front-end onto Google, serving out adverts and all. So
    that means using Blackie ADDS to the total power consumption. As
    well as whatever Google uses, you're also adding in the overhead of
    routing your requests via Blackle.

Seems like a furphy to me. But hey it's a great way of getting attention for
your business under the banner of "saving the planet", eh?

Plus, having a black background means your site can have that oh-so-current
style of having everything look like it's reflected in a shiny black
surface. Ho hum.

DISCLOSURE: Every website I'm associated with does not have a black
background. Am I just having a sour grapes moment, or am I more concerned
with readability of text on a screen? :)

Stil


-- 
Stilgherrian http://stilgherrian.com/
Internet, IT and Media Consulting, Sydney, Australia
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