Green Search Engine Forestle Gets the Boot from Google
September 12, 2008 · Print This Article
Just four days after it went public, green search engine Forestle was forced to shut down due to a decision by Google to end their partnership. Google claims that Forestle offered incentives to artificially click on sponsored links. Forestle disagrees with Google’s assertion and says they’re working on getting the issue clarified so they can get back up and running.
The new green search engine delivered results through Google and money was made through sponsored advertising links at the top of each results page. The site’s income from the sponsored links, minus administrative costs, goes to the Nature Conservancy’s Adopt an Acre program, which helps sustain rainforests. Within four days of operation, Forestle says 15,000 total square yards of rainforest were saved.
From ars technica:
Forestle insists that, despite what Google thinks, it did not offer incentives to click on sponsored links or ads. At the top of every search result page, the company displayed a note explicitly saying not to click on Google sponsored links unless users are truly interested in them. “You harm Forestle, Google and the advertising websites with artificial clicking,” reads the warning. Apparently that’s not enough for Google, though, and perhaps the only incentive required to pull the plug is the mere admission that Forestle was making money on advertising that it planned to donate to charity.
Forestle goes on to accuse Google of ending the partnership because Forestle ‘became too successful’. They’re asking users and bloggers to rally to bring them back, and to use another green search engine, Znout, in the meantime. Znout doesn’t donate money to green charities, they just claim to reduce energy using black backgrounds (which doesn’t really work, by the way) and EcoServers.
Link [ars technica]
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As an alternative try http://www.click4carbon.com
Click4carbon is an environmentally conscious search engine which donates 50% of profits to forestation projects worldwide.
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