Follow-up on Blackle

Dear interweb (and Faceweb too),

You might remember my recent post on Blackle, in which I questioned the utility of said site in fostering more efficient energy consumption.

Well, none other than Google herself (itssself) has now weighed in on this matter, in an Official Google Blog post entitled "Is black the new green?".

That post confirms a few points from my original post:

1. Blackle is not affiliated with Google


2. They do use the Google Custom Search Engine (thus potentially earning money on AdSense)


3. A black background doesn't save money (they list some articles, including the WSJ)

I'm glad to see that Google felt the need to back me up on this...

Blackle sheep

Many of my friends have been urging me to use Blackle, punted as an energy-conscious alternative to the standard Google frontpage.

However, contrary to what many assume or desire, it is not run by Google themselves.

Blackle.com is registered to:

Mikibo
PO Box 4078
Castlecrag, New South Wales 2068
Australia

and was registered through and runs on GoDaddy servers, on GoDaddy's network [AS26496 or via whois].

And it wraps a Google Custom Search, so Mikibo make a small percentage of the ad-money involved.

Interestingly, Mikibo is "a free service providing tools and information to help you lose weight, get fit and stay healthy". So they want to increase the amount of energy that people burn! And decrease it simultaneously! Oh the paradox!

Is there a moral to all of this? Should we blindly ignore common sense and venture outside, leaving behind Google's energy-wasting white page, into the great outdoors? Or should we all just upgrade to LCDs (ironically returning a Google Answers - since "gone black" itself - result in the #1 spot)? Although the white backlight is constantly on, the overall power usage is much lower. I'd like one (note the energy-saving nature of the black background to the pic):