January 15, 2009

Does anyone care about the cost of search?

Recently there have been reports on the cost of a Google search on the environment; apparently, there are some sources that claim two search enquires use up as much energy as boiling a kettle of water.

However, these figures are relative, this does not mean that it is costing the computer user lot of cash, the power usage is spread across the internet and so is absorbed into the global power usage rather than just a personal level.

Do people care about this, the answer is probably no, after all if there was no internet, what would people be doing? More than likely, they would be driving around in their cars creating more pollution, the internet has changed a lot of things and power consumption is a mere side effect.

Source [Fast Company]