Ecocho | Orangeinks

Google Just Banned Ecocho on Earthday

April 23rd, 2008 | Comments Off | Posted in Technology

Ecocho, is the earth friendly search engine which just made its debut just before Earth day and was featured here a couple of days ago. Now, it seemed that the green search engine was banned by Google from using their search service. What is ironic about this is that Google pulled the plug on Ecocho during Earth Day.

You may’ve noticed that your Google searches are suddently not working on the site. Unfortunately, Google has decided to stop Ecocho from using its search technology.

It would seem that they have broken the TOS of Google Adsense when it comes to clicking ads. Below is part of the statement made by Alex, Ecocho’s Web Producer:

Google told us via email that Ecocho is in breach of the Adsense terms and conditions. Specifically, Google says they do not permit sites that offer “non-monetary incentives to users to perform searches on (sic: or) click on ads”.

This is a major blow for Ecocho, since majority of the searches are made using Google. I think Google made the move because of their campaign slogan “You search we grow trees” which urges people to do the searches in their site in exchange for trees. You can check out their blog for the full article and user‘s responses regarding Ecocho’s problem with Google.

Tags: ecocho, Google, google ban, search-engine, TOS violation

Ecocho: The Green Search Engine

April 20th, 2008 | 4 Comments | Posted in Cool Sites

Ecocho is an eco-friendly search engine that promises to grow up to two trees for every 1000 searches made using their site. The green search engine team claims that using Ecocho will not alter or slow down their search. It allows you to search between two search engine giants (Google and Yahoo) who have given their support to the Ecocho project.

A thousand searches on Ecocho allow us to buy enough carbon offset credits to remove 1 ton of CO2 from the atmosphere. This works out at two trees spending a year sucking CO2 from the atmosphere as they grow, which makes us very happy.

Ecocho aims to contribute seventy percent (70%) of their revenue back into carbon offset credits, for the growth of trees. The carbon credits are provided by Global Carbon Exchange (GCX) and KPMG. If you want to help Ecocho in saving the environment, be sure to make your searches using their website. You can also add the Ecocho search bar to your sites by copying the codes which can be found here.