Taking search to a whole new level

Nearly everyone uses Google. It’s fast, effective, and you can use it on a wide variety of devices. Google has become so commonplace that it has become a verb: “I Googled it and can’t believe what I found.” Google, despite popular belief, is not the only effective search engine we have at our disposal. Ecosia, a new search engine, plants trees when you use their search engine to answer all your day-to-day queries.

How does a search engine plant trees?

It’s actually pretty simple. You search the web with Ecosia, either from your desktop, or on-the-go. When you search, you will see “sponsored ads” at the top of the page (just like you see when you use Google). If you click on one of these ads, you will generate income for Ecosia.

Ecosia in turn, uses this income to plant trees. Ecosia maintains strict transparency by posting monthly receipts and business reports, right on their site.

Why should you use it?

Other than the blindingly obvious reason that we need trees to breathe, Ecosia is helping to turn deserts into forests and bringing water, plants, and animals back to drought-ridden areas. Once the land is revived, it will mean more jobs, healthier livestock, and more independent people. A stronger local economy allows both women and men to earn their own income, meaning more children can go to school.

Ecosia’s forests are also part of the international effort to build a “Great Green Wall” for increased environmental, social, and economic prosperity.

Simple to use daily, or just once in a while

Since Ecosia’s founding in 2009, they have planted more than 3 million trees around the world. They have also generated more than 5 million Euros for forestry programs. It only takes approximately twelve seconds of using the search engine to plant a tree; so whether you use it as a Google replacement, or just hope over to Ecosia now and then to help plant a few trees, the benefits will add up quickly.

Ecosia wants to plant one billion trees by the year 2020. While this seems like a lot, there are over 2 million active users on the search engine. There are also Firefox plugins and Chrome extensions to make using Ecosia easier. What do you think; will you give Ecosia a try and plant a few trees?

#Ecosia