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Apparently typing ‘how to save energy’ into Google might not be the best way to do your bit for saving the planet.

According to research by Harvard scientist Alex Wissner-Gross, performing two searches on Google can produce about the same level of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle for a cuppa.

It’s all to do with how Google has it’s servers set up, running the same query on several servers to return the results from the quickest one. Part of the problem seems to stem from the fact that Google’s 450,000 servers are spread all over the place – apparently that uses up more energy. But I guess it’s going to take quite a bit of power to respond to the 200 million daily search requests  Google receives.

With a typical search generating about 7g CO2 and boiling the kettle about 15g, I guess you’ll have to either:

1. stop using the internet or
2. give up caffeine or
3. cut down on searches for generic terms and jump straight to the long tail

Well it ain’t going to the first option, so I guess I’ll have to go for Option 2 or 3.

Of course, it begs the question – Does Yahoo generate less CO2 than Google?

A new selling point perhaps? You may get slower or less less accurate results but you’ll be saving the icecaps.

Related posts:

1. Google Not so Evil After All