Ecosia Reviews 286

Very good idea for a search engine. I also get very good results similar to what I was getting for google. Results are a little bit slower than google but still nothing to complain about. Highly recommended search engine.

Can be a bit slow, and doesn’t give a straightforward response, eg one time I had to research something for homework, and an assload of 40+ dating sites popped up

I also find it quite hard to believe that every second someone is sent out to plant a tree. It’s a cool concept tho

Tell youtubers to get more people. I’m 11 I’ve told my family to get and if get a foams youtubers attention they can get their fans to get it

I don't like it at all because it is slow

Fights for the cause and delivers. Only downside is the slightly inferior algorithm.

Its literally a Bing clone, when you search for anything it tries to throw its hippie agenda at you

For functionality, I think Ecosia deserves 4 or 5 stars. Let’s face it: it’s hard to beat Google. However, for social and environmental impact, I think Ecosia deserves 5/5 Green Stars, blowing Google out of the water (read on for more info on the green stars rating). If you make Ecosia your default and you want to occasionally use Google for a specific search then just include the tag #g after your search term and Ecosia will bring you directly to the Google search results for that term. So it’s easy to maintain use of Google search for times when you think you need it (which isn’t that often, I find). There are other useful tags on Ecosia too – here’s a sample of them:

#i for images
#m for Google maps
#n for news
#tw will take you to the twitter results for your search
#v for videos
#w will take you to the related Wikipedia article
#yt will take you straight to the YouTube results for your search

I’m awarding Ecosia a score of 5/5 Green Stars for social and environmental impact based on the following:

1. Ecosia uses 80% of revenue (after operational costs) to fund tree-planting operations.
2. Advertising revenue from around 45 searches is sufficient to fund planting of one tree.
3. It’s certified by B-Corporation for social and environmental impact, with a good score of 113.
4. Ecosia's servers are powered by company-owned solar plant.
5. These solar panels produce twice the solar energy required for search; excess electricity is supplied to the grid.
6. They do not use tax-avoidance strategies, unlike most other tech companies (like Google).
7. Ecosia has better privacy terms and supplies fewer ads than major search engines like Google.

There has been some confusion generated by a few people online suggesting that Ecosia is less green than Google. It’s based on an argument that Ecosia’s search algorithm is adopted from Microsoft Bing and therefore has a larger carbon footprint than Google’s. However, even though Ecosia's search does partly rely on Microsoft's servers (as well as Ecosia's own solar-powered servers), the fact that Google is a little closer to carbon-neutrality than Microsoft pales into insignificance compared to the impact of tree-planting. Here are some numbers to explain this:

• The carbon cost of a single web search: around 0.2 grams CO2, according to Google.
• Carbon saved by tree-planting funded by Ecosia: 1 kg CO2 per search.
• So the carbon captured from Ecosia-funded tree-planting is 5000-times greater than the footprint of a search.

For more detail on all of this, please check out the Green Stars Project (greenstarsproject.org)

I love the concept and want to use Ecosia exclusively, but my problem with it is the same as when it first came out; the search engine is really very bad! I hope it improves as I do want to use this.

Ecosia is just an other money based company. They don't plant trees but bushes, and ecological projects don't get any support because they don't make enough money.

LEFTIST PROPAGANDA:
Leftist Organization Spreading Fear about Global Warming

At first I signed up - since we all know how Google/Youtube is taking our rights for Free Speech and blocks Common Sense opinions.

Also - I like the "fun" idea of planting a tree...

NOW - I see them promoting that Global Warming Hoax referring to Rising Sea Levels and burning forests...

Living here in CA I witness the GEOENGINEERING - artificial weather manipulation on (almost) a daily base. They are drying out the skys - so to speak - using their Chemtrails and transmitters, whenever rain is suppose to happen; ARTIFICIAL DROUGHT with NANO-PARTICALS of ALUMINUM etc. that creates these HELL-FIRES.
Also watching real weather maps one can see the manipulation of hurricanes - and more. See youtube user "1pacificredwood".

I am leaving this LEFTIST CONTROLLED PROPAGANDA BS.
F.

Ecosia is..AMAZING!!! The second I found it, i was in love. The way that all you need to do is search something then BAM a tree is planted is incredible! they make something so little into a HUGE thing.And I defintely advise that everyone, and l mean everyone, uses it. I would just like to say Thank You to Ecosia for making such a brilliant impact on our world.
Written by: Sophie - age 11

I find Ecosia a helpful, environmentally friendly search engine. The concept is good and I do want to help plant trees. I think it a good and free ways to plant trees.

I've planted a couple of trees so far (it says that every 45 searches is enough for 1 tree, I guess it depends on how many ad links you use) You can even make scammers pay for the trees by clicking on their obvious scam advert links like if you search "btc" and then click on the nonsense ad links like "Make $1234 a day from bitcoin!"

They don't censor websites / search results either like everyone's favourite blatantly has been doing for years.

Amazing idea and all the congrats to the people behind Ecosia. On the tech side is 1 star, to be honest. The search engine it is using is just not good enough to compete with at least Bing, not to mention Google. I know that the idea behind the concept really matters most but at the same time they should offer a decent search engine.

Perfect solution for people who are environmentally conscious but don’t have the means to contribute.

Ecosia is really easy to use online, or through their apps for apple and android. I switched 6 months ago and have never looked back.

The website and app are really clear and easy to use with a layout which is very similar to Google. Indeed their search engine is powered by Google so you still get fantastic search results, whilst planting trees.

I think everyone should switch to Ecosia. It's completely free, but if everyone did it we could make a massive difference!

I am happy that i could participate in such a great initiative but unfortunately searches in greek, which is my first language, are mostly irrelevant and i am forced to change my search engine.
Great idea! I would love to come back when it improves.

this is cool. im saving the earth :)

I love that I am able to easily make a difference in the world by doing something I do all the time in my daily life: search the Internet. It's something a lot of us do without even thinking. The ads are non-obtrusive, as they are something you just get used to with any other search engine.
Sometimes, though, the search results come out a little weird and slightly irrelevant. That would probably be my only complaint.

in our company we always use ecosia to make a difference in the world and help plant more tress, the search engine is very good too. At the begging we were all used to google search and it was difficult to make the change but once we have done it, it was so simple