2010.01.12 13:00 - Ecosia, the green search engine

The Guardian for this meeting was Storm Nordwind. The comments are by Storm Nordwind.

This is a quietish session in which we are struck, part way through, by Bertram's announcement about a new search engine called ecosia (http://www.ecosia.org) that seems to have worthwhile green credientials. I guess many of us were investigating ecosia behind the scenes while our avatars were in the Play as Being pavilion!

Talking of green things, Yak's tea arrives, followed by Yak, and followed by the emptiness of Yak.

Storm Nordwind: Hello Green Tea
Yakuzza Lethecus: hey strom, i am on the way to the other session
Storm Nordwind: Hello Yak
Storm Nordwind: Bye Yak
Yakuzza Lethecus: take care, have fun
Storm Nordwind waves

A large soap bubble arrives, floating above the cushions, in which appears to be an avatar. The bubble also is being chaperoned.

Agatha Macbeth: Hi Storm!
Storm Nordwind: Hi Agatha
Storm Nordwind: Hi Soap Bubble
Agatha Macbeth: Two of us together!
Agatha Macbeth: I had one too a minut ago :)
Agatha Macbeth: minute
Fael Illyar: Hi Storm :)
Storm Nordwind: The soap bubble has a being therein contained.
Storm Nordwind: And it speaks!
Storm Nordwind: A speaking soap bubble
Agatha Macbeth: It's called a Fael :)
Fael Illyar: Hi Bert :)
Agatha Macbeth: Hi Berti
Fael Illyar bubbles around.
Agatha Macbeth: Hee hee
Fael Illyar: Hi Magic :)
Bertram Jacobus: hello all ... :-)
Magic Leimes: hello everyone
Agatha Macbeth: Hi Magic
Storm Nordwind: Hi

Lightheartedness reigns for a while longer.

Agatha Macbeth: Fael is feeling very bouncy today :)
Agatha Macbeth: We were just having an interesting chat about the Sami people
Storm Nordwind: That is linked to feeling bouncy?
Agatha Macbeth: Well, I guess it's a cultural thing...
Agatha Macbeth: She's 1/16 sami herself apparently
Storm Nordwind: And when she uses a Lapptop, even more so
Fael Illyar giggles.
Agatha Macbeth groans!
Agatha Macbeth: Wonder if she lapp dances?
Fael Illyar: if you ask, I might :P
Agatha Macbeth: Oooh!
Agatha Macbeth: TY Fael :)
Fael Illyar smiles.
Agatha Macbeth: Last time we were dancing I could,t see you!
Agatha Macbeth: You were just a cloud
Fael Illyar: yes, now I'm just a bubble :)
Agatha Macbeth: So it goes
Storm Nordwind: I love the fusion of Swedish and Finnish folk music.
Agatha Macbeth: Mmm
Agatha Macbeth: Quite a lot of Finnish speakers in Finland I think
Agatha Macbeth: Tove Jansson was one I believe
Agatha Macbeth: The creator of Moomintroll
Fael Illyar: Wasn't Tove Jansson Swedish?
Agatha Macbeth: No, Finnish I'm sure
Agatha Macbeth: I'll google
Agatha Macbeth: Yes indeed. Born in Helsinki

Bertram has an important announcement about an independent, non-profit website called Ecosia.

Bertram Jacobus: there is a new searching machine instead of google - ecosia - it saves 2 m² rainforest with every search (!) ... :-)
Agatha Macbeth: Wow!
Agatha Macbeth: How does it do that Bert?
Bertram Jacobus: i can recommend it "absolutely" - just changed my bookmarks ;-)
Fael Illyar: that sounds almost too good to bed true :P
Agatha Macbeth: Mmm
--BELL--
Bertram Jacobus: they give the money they earn to projects instead to take it themselfs and use eco power on their servers - they also have a video where they explain all that
Bertram Jacobus: money by sponsored links -
Bertram Jacobus: and i think, they are worth to grow ...
Bertram Jacobus: can´t be worse then google ;o)
Agatha Macbeth: Ah, a kind of 'Fair Trade' setup then?
Bertram Jacobus: and worth a try
Bertram Jacobus: yes
Fael Illyar: ah, so it is actually tangible :P
Zon Quar: heya
Fael Illyar: and not just a trick of vocabulary :)
Fael Illyar: Hi Zon :)
Agatha Macbeth: Hello Zon
Bertram Jacobus: hey zon ! :-) ...
Storm Nordwind waves
Bertram Jacobus: you mean ecosia fael ?
Fael Illyar: yes

We revert back to silliness for a while, but behind the scenes some of us are distracted by investigating Ecosia.

Agatha Macbeth: I thought you cleared all the snow away Storm?
Bertram Jacobus: i think, thats always our "business" or - we must do it when we are interested in something : proove or do whatever to see, whether something is right or wrong ...
Storm Nordwind: No just some of it. It's hard work. You're welcome to help of course :)
Agatha Macbeth: Ooh me back....;-)
Agatha Macbeth: And yes, true Bert
Bertram Jacobus: :-)
Storm Nordwind: I didn't know your name was Agatha 'lightweight' Macbeth? ;)
Agatha Macbeth: Lightweight?
Storm Nordwind chuckles
Agatha Macbeth: Better than a Heavyweight!
Agatha Macbeth: (Especially around the butt)
Storm Nordwind: Oh apparently that's good for you, according to Oxford researchers

The link for that article is here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8451674.stm

Agatha Macbeth: Oh what do THEY know :)
Agatha Macbeth: Probably never shovelled snow in their lives
Agatha Macbeth: Too busy trying to win the Boat race
Storm Nordwind: Oh well - the snow will be gone in a few days. Melting rapidly
Agatha Macbeth: Not in UK I'm afraid
Agatha Macbeth: We're slipping and sliding everywhere
Fael Illyar: Well, I'd best head for bed so I can get up in time tomorrow :)
Storm Nordwind: Bye for now Fael
Fael Illyar: Good night everyone :)
Zon Quar: bye fale
Agatha Macbeth: Night Fael :) *hug*
Fael Illyar: *hug*
Agatha Macbeth: Thanks for the bubble!
Zon Quar: lol
Agatha Macbeth: Such a sweet girl
arabella Ella: Hiya
Agatha Macbeth: Hi Ara
Storm Nordwind: Hi there arabella
Bertram Jacobus: hey ara ! :-)
Magic Leimes: hi ara
Zon Quar: hi ara
Storm Nordwind: We're talking about... er... nothing in particular ara, so if you have a topic you'd like to bring up, please do :)
Storm Nordwind: (Or anyone else for that matter)
arabella Ella: oh so that is why everyone seems so silent
arabella Ella: don't have any topics in mind ... will think
--BELL--
Agatha Macbeth: (Damn that bell was loud)
Storm Nordwind: We managed the weather. (It's +15 here today whereas it was -20 just a few days ago.) And http://ecosia.org sounds interesting too. Otherwise...
Bertram Jacobus: :-)
Storm Nordwind: If your camera is over the fountain Agatha, the trailing bell will definitely sound loud!
Agatha Macbeth: Just tried it. seems ok :)

And back to discussion and investigation the green search engine.

arabella Ella: interesting system ecosia
Agatha Macbeth: That could be it :)
arabella Ella: never heard of it before ... a green search engine
Agatha Macbeth: Hi Vert
Vertigo Ethaniel: greetings to you all
Storm Nordwind: Greetings
Zon Quar: hi vertigo
Agatha Macbeth: Ah a gnostic
arabella Ella: Hiya Vert
Vertigo Ethaniel: :) i just joined that group
Storm Nordwind: Does the green search engine highlight green topics at all?
Agatha Macbeth: Seems much like any other search engine to me
Agatha Macbeth: I shall peruse it further
arabella Ella: trying to find out
Bertram Jacobus: hello vertigo
arabella Ella: they donate 80 percent of revenue earned from clicks on ads to the rainforest through WWF ... that is what they say
Bertram Jacobus: no storm. i dont think so
Agatha Macbeth: Well that's good :)
Storm Nordwind: Supporting WWF is very good
Bertram Jacobus: and right : wwf is a trustworthy company isn´t it ?
Agatha Macbeth: Yep
arabella Ella: and they say around 2 percent of web surfers on their site click on ads ... sounds like a bit too many to me
Storm Nordwind: Lies. Damn lies. And statistics.
arabella Ella: :)
Bertram Jacobus: may be. i click ads when i see some sometimes there ... :-)
arabella Ella: i click very few very rarely
Agatha Macbeth: And gordon Brown :)
Storm Nordwind: 2% of web surfers is very different from 2% of searches of topic clicks
arabella Ella: do we really manage to filter out the ads though i wonder or do they get to our subconscious
arabella Ella: this is a quote i found: About two percent of the search requests end up with a click on a sponsored link.
Agatha Macbeth: Well I always mute the ones on the radio
Storm Nordwind: Thanks ara
Storm Nordwind: I installed Adblock Plus on Firefox to cut down the ads. Seems to work very well.
Bertram Jacobus: lying for the rainforest - wouldn´t be that a good thing ? ;-)
arabella Ella: i found this quote too: The exact amount we earn depends a lot on the country. Searches from the United States generated a lot more revenue than searches in markets with less developed online advertising markets like India or Brazil. On international average we currently earn 0.13 Euro Cent per search.
arabella Ella: more stats Storm
Agatha Macbeth: I don't seem to get any with Opera
Storm Nordwind: Of course the incentive to stay with Google is very big when they provide an integrated service. Must be hard to break into that
arabella Ella: well there are stats on most used web sites per country internationally and google seems to be tops for most of them
Agatha Macbeth: And long established...
arabella Ella: i had a look at those stats and it is amazing how practically the same international sites make it to the top 100 most clicked
Magic Leimes: bye everyone
Storm Nordwind: Bye magic
arabella Ella: bye Magic
Agatha Macbeth: Bye Magic
Storm Nordwind: I hear 63.7% of all statistics are made up on the spur of the moment ;)
Agatha Macbeth: :)
arabella Ella: that would make life easier for some Storm

The conversation shift to archiving records.

arabella Ella: ethically one is meant to hang on to records for around 5 years but i wonder how many of those archives are actually accessed
Storm Nordwind: Which records are those ara?
arabella Ella: data
arabella Ella: from interviews, focus groups, etc
arabella Ella: audio tapes too
Storm Nordwind: Sorry... I must have missed something... Who is supposed to hang onto those data?
--BELL--
arabella Ella: the person conducting the research ... the researcher
Storm Nordwind: Oh I see. I missed that. :) Legally I had to keep company records for 7 years. So nice to dump them when I emigrated!
arabella Ella: :)
arabella Ella: and yes some ethics committees and some organisations stipulate 7 years records archive
Storm Nordwind: Perhaps it's all in the Akashic records anyway
Storm Nordwind: :)
Agatha Macbeth: How long do you keep those for Storm? :)
arabella Ella: yes it may be
Bertram Jacobus: i´ll leave - have a nice day or evening all - and ty for the talk ! ... *waves* ...
Storm Nordwind: Bye Bert
Vertigo Ethaniel: good day, bertram
Agatha Macbeth: 'Nacht Berti
Zon Quar: me too, go, byee
Bertram Jacobus: ty :-)
Agatha Macbeth: C ya Zon
Storm Nordwind: Akashic records, apparently, are kept in perpetuity, though I don't think there's a Google interface for them yet
Storm Nordwind: Bye Zon
Agatha Macbeth: Really?
Agatha Macbeth: Maybe Apple could invent one :)
arabella Ella: maybe we are on the way there with the web

Vertigo 's use of the word "indefinitely" has us musing on the future of civilization and humanity.

Vertigo Ethaniel: yes, the internet has the potential to store human records indefinitely
Agatha Macbeth: Or at least as long as it exists
Vertigo Ethaniel: provided that humans are around to care for it
Vertigo Ethaniel: yes
Storm Nordwind: Or perhaps our civilizations will rise and fall, like so many others, and in 2000 years time it will all be so much fantasy and bedtime stories
arabella Ella: but is it the case that records depend on how long the site url has been purchased for
Storm Nordwind: There's archive.org
Storm Nordwind: But it's not flawless
arabella Ella: oh Storm of course that is very likely to be the case
Vertigo Ethaniel: bittorrent, in a sense, is a remarkable work of distributed backup
Storm Nordwind: It's a strange paradox... in order to record what's already there, we have to destroy more of what's already there
Agatha Macbeth: Eek!
Agatha Macbeth: Tricky
arabella Ella: yes ... one wonders whether books will still be read as hard copy when today's young kids grow up

Time to go.

Storm Nordwind: Well this is not my regular slot. And I have another meeting in 5 minutes. Nice to talk with you all. Will you please excuse me?
arabella Ella: bye Storm good to see you!
Storm Nordwind: Namaste
Vertigo Ethaniel: sure storm
Vertigo Ethaniel: see ya later
Agatha Macbeth: Night Storm
arabella Ella: I must go too nite all!
Agatha Macbeth: C ya Ara
Vertigo Ethaniel: see ya arabella :P