Need Voting Info? Check “the Google”

Do you care about the environment? Then you care about this election. Check out the Google Maps voter guide where you can locate your polling place, get info about absentee ballots and make sure you’ll all set for Nov.4th. Remember, you’re not allowed to complain if you don’t vote!

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Get Your Green Ideas to Google

Have you ever had a great idea that could help the planet but not enough cash to make it happen? Get your green ideas to Google’s Project 10^1000. It’s a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible.

From the website:

If you have an idea that you believe would help somebody, we want to hear about it. We’re looking for ideas that help as many people as possible, in any way, and we’re committing the funding to launch them. You can submit your ideas and help vote on ideas from others. Final idea selections will be made by an advisory board.

Google Considering Wave-Powered ‘Data Barges’

Google may be moving their data centers offshore (and toward green), if the patent they applied for is any indication. It seems as if they’re seeking to cut power costs and avoid paying property taxes by placing their supercomputers on barges anchored 3-7 miles offshore, where they would use wave energy to power and cool the computers.

The Times Online has it:

In the patent application seen by The Times, Google writes: “Computing centres are located on a ship or ships, anchored in a water body from which energy from natural motion of the water may be captured, and turned into electricity and/or pumping power for cooling pumps to carry heat away.”

The increasing number of data centres necessary to cope with the massive information flows generated on popular websites has prompted companies to look at radical ideas to reduce their running costs.

Data centres consumed 1 per cent of the world’s electricity in 2005. By 2020 the carbon footprint of the computers that run the internet will be larger than that of air travel, a recent study by McKinsey, a consultancy firm, and the Uptime Institute, a think tank, predicted.

Technology experts dubbed the offshore data barges ‘a computer army’, drawing reactions across the web with titles like, ‘If Google was Iran, wouldn’t we be scared right now?’  A lot of questions have arisen about the idea, including the fact that 7 miles offshore is within the jurisdiction of many states, the fact that security could be an issue and that having the exclusive right to attempt such a thing would prevent other companies from achieving similar carbon-cutting progress.  Google has refused to clarify the plan, saying they often file patent applications on ideas that may or may not ever become reality.

Seems like a pretty smart move to us.  If, as noted by The Times Online, the carbon footprint of these supercomputers could outweigh that of air travel, something should be done about it now, and the idea of using wave power is pretty innovative.

Link [The Times Online]

Green Search Engine Forestle Gets the Boot from Google

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]

Adventures in Contextual Advertising: When Messages Cross, John McCain Gets Hurt

I love it when ads clash.

For some reason, we’re getting a ton of John McCain ads on the site right now. We’re pretty clear about our general disdain for Mr. McCain and our belief that if he won in November, our country as we know it would be finished. Barack Obama will save our country.

Anyways- I got a kick out of seeing these two ads juxtaposed on the site. The top ad asks “Which candidate was ranked 894 out of 899 students in college?” (Hint, they still used abacuses when this guy was in college). The ad jumps to a few videos Good Magazine has put together about each candidate. John McCain’s video, if you haven’t guessed already, points out that he graduated 894 out of 899 in his class at the Navy Academy.

The bottom ad is straight from McCain’s campaign. It asks the (stupid) questions “Is it OK to Unconditionally Meet with Anti-American Foreign Leaders” (answer: Yes! It’s fscking called Diplomacy you douchebag!) and jumps to some bullshit page trolling for email addresses and donations. I made a reverse donation by clicking on the ad and signing up as “McCainIsGoingDown@by20inNovember.com“.

I loves me the interwebs.

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