Forestle

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Forestle
Web search website
languages 34
Registration not mandatory
On-line August 5, 2008 (currently closed since January 1, 2011)
http://forestle.org/

Forestle was an ecologically -inspired website to Web search , which in 2008 by Christian Kroll was invented and initiated. The aim of the web search was to save rainforest areas and to work in a CO 2 -neutral manner. The search results came from Yahoo , with which Forestle cooperated.

Forestle was decommissioned on January 1, 2011. Since then, the search queries have been automatically forwarded to the successor Ecosia . The searches at Ecosia continue to help protect the rainforest.

Contributions to sustainability

In its search queries, Forestle generated advertising revenue through clicks on so-called sponsor links . These text ads were delivered by Yahoo Search Marketing and displayed alongside normal search results at Forestle, with the partners dividing the advertising revenue among themselves.

For each search query, an area of ​​around 0.1 square meters of rainforest was purchased and converted into nature reserves. The nonprofit -Search Engine, which takes its name from the English word Forest (for forest derived), guaranteed 90% of their advertising revenue in the US conservation organization The Nature Conservancy to donate, which was in line with its program "Adopt an Acre" rain forest areas bought, then on the Osa peninsula , and placed under nature protection.

When you started a search query on the Forestle website, it was forwarded to Yahoo. Yahoo did the actual search. As a result, Forestle saved its own server infrastructure in the background, which would be necessary for searching websites and generating search results. In contrast, there were longer “transport routes” for the search query or the search result. Forestle added its own server to Yahoo, which also used electricity. Forestle was operated largely CO 2 -neutral: The entire CO 2 emissions for the generation of electrical energy, which was consumed by the servers, the network and the computers of the users of Forestle.org, were obtained through the subsequent purchase of RECS certificates for Renewable energies balanced again with another partner. However, this does not apply to the actual search process on Yahoo's servers.

Donation receipts were published monthly on the website. It was also stated that Forestle was under regular surveillance by The Nature Conservancy. In order to maintain the protection at that time, protection plans were drawn up and financed with timber companies and the municipalities.

10,319,493.0 m² of rainforest were saved. The number of search queries more than doubled from December 2008 to January 2009 from approx. 4,000 per day to approx. 10,000 per day and on February 8, 2009, there were over 20,000 search queries per day.

Forestle decommissioning

Searches to Forestle have been forwarded to Ecosia since January 1st, 2011 . According to Forestle, this will bundle the energy of Christian Kroll's two projects because further development only needs to be concentrated on Ecosia. The search via Forestle contributed to the fact that a total donation of 95,000 euros could be handed over to the environmental organization The Nature Conservancy. This corresponds to a sustainably protected area of ​​more than 10 square kilometers of the rainforest.

Functions

A browser plug-in was available for web searches , with which search queries via Forestle were possible without calling up the start page. An iGoogle gadget was also offered. Forestle offered a search method with indicators that filtered certain search results by source. The language of the indicator search was automatically assigned so that a search on the US website or on the UK website would show a hit on Wikipedia, among other things. Search queries on the German or Austrian Forestle website sometimes lead to results that lead to the German-language Wikipedia.

Awards

On November 27, 2009 Forestle received the Utopia Award, a prize that honors German role models, companies, organizations and products from the sustainability sector.

“The green Internet search engine Forestle offers a simple and powerful way to help protect existing rainforests by using a service that is widely consumed every day. [...] "

- Utopia Award Jury 2009

partnership

Forestle initially cooperated with Google . After a few days, Google terminated the cooperation with Forestle. Forestle would literally ask the user to click on advertising banners, so the reasoning. Forestle has worked with Yahoo ever since.

background

Forestle was Christian Kroll's first project, who has meanwhile developed two more "green" search engines:

  • The web search on Znout is not non-profit, but aims to offset the entire CO 2 emissions caused by searching on Znout by purchasing certificates for renewable energies. Znout cooperates with Google and was originally only a temporary solution when Google terminated the contract with Forestle. The CO 2 -neutral search should initially only be used during the transition from Forestle to Yahoo. Now the former website of Znout is redirecting to that of Ecosia.
  • Ecosia works with Bing , Yahoo and the WWF .

criticism

Forestle advertised with a CO 2 -neutral search, which was only partially true. The company co2stats measured and analyzed the website traffic . The US company subsequently bought RECS certificates to the same extent . The power consumption of the server, network and visitors' computers should be taken into account. However, by trading in these eco-certificates, nuclear or coal-fired electricity is simply relabelled as eco-energy; the actual amount of ecological electricity is not increased.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Forestle was shut down on January 1, 2011 ( Memento from January 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 319 kB) - Retrieved on February 19, 2011
  2. ↑ a b Forestlen for the rainforest - article in the taz of August 12, 2009
  3. ↑ Forestle CO 2 Certificate - Accessed February 19, 2009
  4. ↑ So far saved rainforest area and donations to The Nature Conservatory - Chronological donation receipts from Forestle.org, accessed on June 14, 2010
  5. ^ Forestle Search Bar and Indicators - Retrieved February 19, 2011
  6. ↑ Utopia Awards for «Forestle» & Co ( Memento from January 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) - article on netzeitung.de from November 27, 2009
  7. ↑ Winner of the Utopia Award 2009 ( Memento from July 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) - Retrieved on February 19, 2011
  8. ↑ Googling greener? ( Memento from March 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) - Article from the Frankfurter Rundschau on February 26, 2009
  9. ↑ Google pulls the plug on eco-friendly search engine Forestle - Article from Arstechnica.com on September 1, 2008
  10. ↑ How does Znout work - Retrieved February 19, 2011
  11. ^ Label fraud in green electricity - Article from the Hamburger Abendblatt on January 7, 2008