Re:Ecosia – the search engine that plants trees
by ealhad on Thursday March 07, 2019 @04:36AM
(#19326721)
This is litterally a wrapper around bing.
The problem is that the ads are also from Bing — Ecosia doesn't track its users, Bing does.
Re:Ecosia – the search engine that plants trees
by foxhop on Wednesday March 06, 2019 @09:34PM
(#19325124)
It wraps bing. This is the 2nd time I've come across Ecosia, today I added the add-on to Firefox. Here's to hoping they actually plant the trees!
Re:Ecosia – the search engine that plants trees
by derdot on Thursday March 07, 2019 @04:48AM
(#19326782)
Not sure my word is going to mean much, but yes, we do indeed plant these trees :) We also publish regular tree updates to make the impact more visible (latest one is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeBhY5m9npE&) and just now some of my colleagues are in Indonesia: https://www.facebook.com/ecosia/videos/1056643057857650/
We also use a ODK-backed system for monitoring, where our partners on the ground fill in surveys about the trees they planted.
Re:Ecosia – the search engine that plants trees
by mdnormy on Thursday March 07, 2019 @02:22AM
(#19326176)
I've seen Pornhub doing similar initiatives. Haven't read any updates whether they did plant all trees that they promised to. No one keeping tab.
Re:Ecosia – the search engine that plants trees
by foxhop on Thursday March 07, 2019 @09:32AM
(#19328253)
Seems they are a certified B-corp (just looked it up, seems legit).
Here is another reference: https://info.ecosia.org/about they have a pretty sizable team. Pretty cool!
Kudos to them! This should be an inspirational example whenever people talk about starting a tech company on minimal code.
(Their commitment to transparency is also pretty neat -- way to understand your customers' values, and identify a niche defined by said values. A fantastic differentiator in a market that's generally commoditized these days!)