Ecosia Search Engine Review – Unbiased Research 2023
The search engine Ecosia plants a tree each time a user uses it. Now that it appears to be quite appealing to plant trees for every web search, let’s take a closer look at Ecosia:
- Three million metric tons of CO2 have been removed from the atmosphere.
- Fifty-two people in total, including independent contractors.
- Every 0.7 seconds, a new tree is planted. You can plant a tree on Ecosia for every 50 searches you conduct.
- Twenty-one reforestation initiatives are underway globally. More than 125 million trees have already been planted, and that number is rapidly increasing.
- More than 700 native tree species have been planted, restoring more than 85,000 hectares of land.
This blog post was written to determine whether Ecosia is an actual environmental company or another greenwashing con. So, do not go anywhere, and let’s get started.
Table of Contents
What is Ecosia?
An innovative search engine named Ecosia uses web searches to plant trees. The longer-term viability of such a corporate strategy is the more crucial question. Their simple business model involves giving away 85% of profits for tree planting. But how precisely does Ecosia operate? These factors most likely account for the decrease in Ecosia usage.
Many people have negative perceptions of openness and kindness on this level. We initially had doubts about Ecosia’s goals. However, everyone should install Ecosia as a Chrome extension after doing some research and understanding the platform. Although Google may be the best, something needs to change.
Who is in charge of Ecosia?
Although the business was founded in Berlin in 2009, it has only recently become well-known thanks to an aggressive marketing campaign that many of you have probably seen on YouTube.
It surprises a lot of people that Ecosia is only partially self-sufficient. Thanks to its partnership with Microsoft Bing, Ecosia increased revenue and offered a user-friendly layout similar to that of Google. This collaboration may be primarily responsible for Ecosia’s growth.
Track Records By Ecosia
Ecosia makes it easy to get around this by giving you the choice of personalizing or not personalizing your search results.
Going to your settings will allow you to quickly turn off tracking. Like Google or Bing, Ecosia analyzes your search history to present results that are optimized and they think you will find useful. This implies that while finding the information you’re looking for might be more difficult, doing so would put the confidentiality of your data at risk.
Nevertheless, Ecosia gathers less data than Google, which has invested a significant amount of money in attempting to keep you on its website longer. We all know that while doing this might aid in your search, there is also a chance that you will become ensnared in a world where you can only hear or read one side of an argument.
Worth of Ecosia Search Engine
Having internet access is a luxury. Why not volunteer while you are browsing online? Why not carry out helpful deeds simultaneously? Your reward is a tiny tree counter in the upper-left corner of the screen that counts the number of trees you assisted in planting.
Even though we have only used Ecosia for a few weeks and have only planted four trees, it outperforms Google in terms of efficiency. Utilizing the user interface is as simple as conducting a Google search. How can we not feel compelled to actively try to do something for the greater good when half of all online searches are for pictures and useless information?
The Advantages of Using Ecosia
- An easy-to-use user interface that resembles other search engines in terms of design.
- It displays relevant ads in search results to generate revenue.
- Concerns exist about data privacy. They do not sell your personal information to advertisers; you can disable all tracking.
- A whopping 44% of its total sales, or the majority of its excess profits, are used to fund international tree-planting initiatives.
- They plant trees for the benefit of communities all over the world.
- They are open and truthful when it comes to their financial situation.
- It’s effortless to incorporate into your daily schedule.
- Access to the monthly financial reports they offer is free for everyone.
The Negative Effects of Using Ecosia
- There are only so many outcomes from image searches.
- The search results may or may not be relevant to the search query.
Characteristics of Ecosia Search Engine
The characteristics of Ecosia are given below;
Privacy
Ecosia makes a lot of effort to protect your privacy. Ecosia only keeps specific user data for a maximum of one week before completely anonymizing it. Ecosia places a higher value on user privacy than other search engines, as shown by the company’s “Privacy” page. Every search is also encrypted to give you even more security as you browse. Unlike other search engines, Ecosia does not sell your information to marketing companies.
Features
- A large search field serves as the home page’s primary feature. Auto-suggestions will show up as you type to help you finish your query. The number of trees users have planted is displayed in a ticker below the search bar to draw attention to the company’s environmentally friendly practices.
- Due to Ecosia’s design, customization options, search results, and advertisements, users of other popular search engines may feel right at home using it. The reason for this is partially due to the fact that Microsoft Bing offers its deliverables, some of which include filtering from Ecosia’s algorithms.
- You can access Ecosia’s about page, privacy statement, and store by choosing the hamburger menu in the top-right corner of the screen.
- There are filters available for the web, images, video, maps, and more at the top of the page, including Wikipedia, Amazon, and other web services. The results are presented left-aligned on the results page.
- The settings menu on Ecosia lets you change the language, search region, auto suggestions, and other features. You can modify the website’s language, the search area, and the auto-suggestions by selecting Settings at the top of the page.
Platforms
Ecosia can be accessed from computers running Windows, MacOS, and Linux. The search engine works with popular browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge, Opera, and others that are also accessible to this search engine. You can also download the Ecosia mobile app for iOS and Android mobile devices.
User Experience
- One of the most important differences between other search engine and Ecosia is that the latter emphasis on carbon reduction.
- Users of Google or Bing’s search engines will recognize Ecosia right away. The outcomes were quickly made available, and they listed the deliverables in order of priority. There is a significant amount of result overlap when using Bing’s framework. For instance, a search for “Walt Disney” produced the same results on all platforms, despite minor formatting variations.
- According to the website, planting a tree requires about 50 searches. It is assumed that most of those searches result in ad clicks because Ecosia’s funding for tree planting comes directly from advertising revenue.
- The number of searches you have conducted with Ecosia is displayed as a tree in the top-right corner of every page, regardless of where you are on the website.
Is Ecosia Planting Trees?
Some of the non-profit organizations that Ecosia collaborates with to plant trees in 21 different countries include the Hommes et Terre organization, the Eden Reforestation Projects, and local communities. Ecosia also collaborates with regional businesses to understand the areas where trees are grown. One hundred million trees will have been planted worldwide by 2022. They work as closely as they can with those who grow trees to avoid unwanted overhead and to work and communicate using short and sweet lines. They also take advice from local authorities in Burkina Faso and Spain and a group of small farmers.
Replanting campaigns in Brazil (following the Amazon forest fires, Australia (following the bushfires), and other nations (during COVID) are among them. They also include urban tree-planting initiatives in NHS-affiliated hospitals.
Single Search Pays for a Single Tree
No, it is estimated that a single tree requires an average of 50 searches. It depends on the keyword and the amount of money generated from the ads to determine whether fewer searches are required. Nonetheless, it is a good idea to consider how each information search you conduct contributes to a tree-planting campaign.
Competition of Ecosia with Other Search Engines
Ecosia competes with DuckDuckGo and other search engines in terms of total privacy because all search engines emphasize security and non-tracking when using their websites and browser extensions. Although DuckDuckGo prioritizes privacy more than its rivals, if you care about the environment, you should know that neither of them donates any of their profits to environmental causes.
Yahoo and Google are other options. It is always possible that some of your search histories will be gathered and sold to outside parties, even though both search engines are widely used and provide intuitive results based on previous searches and user information. Ecosia is a cost-free alternative to Google. The top five justifications for using Ecosia right away are as follows.
1. Taxes
Google has frequently evaded paying its fair share of taxes by channelling its multibillion-dollar revenues through several low-tax countries. On the other hand, Ecosia has always paid taxes and will continue to do so. Google’s legal gymnastics are more impressive than its product innovation. Many infrastructure-dependent companies, including Google, and organizations that support education, the environment, and international aid are supported by these taxes. Amazon and Facebook, two other online behemoths using offshore scaffolding, pay a small portion of what other companies contribute.
2. Neutral Results
You can choose whether or not to tailor your search results using Ecosia. You can turn off personalization by simply going to your settings. However, Google can predict which search results you will like based on your click patterns, search history, and location. A lack of information that contradicts your preexisting beliefs may result in a “filter bubble.”
3. Performance
Christian Kroll, the CEO of Ecosia, even consented to a binding contract to ensure that Ecosia’s profits stay within the company and are ultimately invested in or used for tree planting. The goal of Ecosia is to regenerate our planet by planting trees where they are most needed. The company is mission-driven, financially open, and upholds its ethical standards. Most businesses are designed to generate as much money as possible for their founders and investors.
4. Being Discrete
Ecosia is the alternative search engine that values privacy the most. Ecosia does not use third-party tracking technology, encrypts all searches to prevent eavesdropping, and does not give away your personal information to marketers. On the other hand, Google shares data across various services, including those incorporated into millions of third-party websites. This implies that Ecosia does not build personal profiles of you based on your search history but rather anonymizes all inquiries within a 4-day spam protection period.
4. Environment
Ecosia not only generates more solar energy than is required to power all searches with renewable energy, but it also does so. Each of these searches takes fossil fuels off the grid. The Ecosia trees will have numerous positive effects on the environment. They provide microclimates that protect crops, replenish depleted soil, and offer habitat to animals whose species are in danger of extinction.
Google’s management owns a fleet of aircraft, but the business has been using carbon-neutral servers since 2018. However, because Ecosia uses its profits to plant trees, every search conducted through it removes about 1.5 kg of CO2 from the atmosphere. This suggests that Ecosia could absorb 18% of the CO2 produced globally if it were the same size as Google. They lessen soil erosion as well.
Instructions for Removing the Ecosia Extension
Although Ecosia’s mission is to use search revenue to plant trees to address many of the world’s most pressing problems, some users would unavoidably prefer the simplicity of Google’s complex capabilities. If this applies to you, don’t worry; Ecosia might be shut down at any time. After installing the Ecosia extension in Google Chrome, take the following actions to remove the extension:
- Navigate to the three-dot menu located in the top right of the browser.
- Select extensions after selecting “More Tools” to reveal more options.
- Choose whether to deactivate the Ecosia extension by flicking a switch or completely delete it by clicking the Delete button.
- There is nothing more that needs to be done; everything will return to how it was before the Ecosia.org addon was deleted.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Why was Ecosia installed on my Chrome browser?
This frequently occurs when a new piece of software is quickly or automatically installed, followed by the immediate addition of Ecosia.org.
Q. Does Ecosia have a VPN?
- The inclusion of Ecosia in Brave marks the beginning of a new era in which digital businesses will collaborate to advance moral technology across the board, from VPNs to browsers, search engines, and fully-featured privacy solutions.
Q. Is Ecosia's owner unknown?
- Christian Kroll founded Ecosia in 2008 after learning about the detrimental effects of deforestation on the environment and society while traveling the world. Christian wants to approach ecology with a business mindset, even though non-profits are a good solution for some leaders and organizations.
Q. Do they have access to Ecosia's past search histories?
Due to this, Ecosia neither keeps a log of all your searches nor creates personal profiles of you based on your search history. Additionally, we do not use any techniques for third-party monitoring or selling your information to advertisers.
Q. What makes users of Ecosia want to use it?
- They can join a global group of people who are prepared to use simple action as a catalyst for social change by founding Ecosia. Your online clicks and purchases generate revenue that we use to fund community-led global tree-planting initiatives.
Conclusion for Ecosia Search Engine
The Ecosia browser extensions simplify integrating the engine into your typical Chrome, Safari, or Firefox workflow. Even though Ecosia’s effort will probably fall short of the estimated 2 trillion trees needed to offset carbon emissions since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, its goal of planting 2 billion trees by 2023 is still admirable. The company’s environmental initiatives inspire people who want to help the environment in some way, giving the impression that each inquiry you submit supports a deserving cause. If we do not want future generations to live in glass bubbles with climate control, society needs to start changing our way of life.
As we know, Google currently performs better than Ecosia in several ways. But your commitment to environmental preservation will determine whether using Ecosia is still worthwhile. The switch won’t significantly alter your way of life, and most importantly, Ecosia makes it easy to support environmental protection with just a single finger lift. Ecosia offers the appearance, feel, and results of a reliable search engine that was carefully designed. We hoped that this article helped you knowing the importance of the Ecosia search engine. Let us in the comments about your thoughts about it. We are looking forward to reading them.
