A new Australian search engine scheme based on environmentally-friendly principles has been launched in 14 countries, including Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Canada and Germany.Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, the ecocho company - which created the service - says it could help reduce global warming thanks to its new 'green' initiative which will involve the planting of trees.
Reportedly, the firm will sponsor the growth of up to two trees for every 1,000 searches conducted on Yahoo! and Google at no cost to the user.
Ecocho has an agreement with both Yahoo! and Google to receive a percentage of advertising revenue in order to fund the purchase of carbon offset credits through the New South Wales government Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme, according to company founder Tim Macdonald.
The scheme, which was launched in 2003, aims to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases through the encouragement of project-based activities.
Mr Macdonald stated that, in New Zealand alone, internet users conduct nearly 120 million web searches a month.
He added: "If we could capture just one per cent of that traffic, we would make a significant contribution towards lowering the impact of harmful greenhouse gas emissions."
Mr Macdonald went on say that the service is free, does not alter or slow users' search results and is available in a total of 60 languages. He added that ecocho's team would be disappointed if the site does not result in at least tens of thousands of new trees being planted.
