Blackle is an
internet search engine
A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a l ...
powered by
Google Programmable Search Engine. Blackle was created by Tony Heap of Heap Media Australia, which aims to save energy by displaying a black background with a grayish-white text color on search results. Blackle claims to have saved over 8.5
MWh of electrical energy as of January 2021. For comparison, the average American household consumes 11 MWh of electrical energy per year.
Concept
The concept behind Blackle is that
computer monitors
A computer monitor is an output device that displays information in pictorial or textual form. A discrete monitor comprises a visual display, support electronics, power supply, housing, electrical connectors, and external user controls.
The ...
can be made to use less energy by displaying much darker colors. Blackle is based on a study which tested a variety of
CRT and
LCD monitor
A thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT LCD) is a variant of a liquid-crystal display that uses thin-film-transistor technology to improve image qualities such as addressability and contrast. A TFT LCD is an active matrix LCD, in cont ...
s. However, these claims are disputed over whether there are any energy saving effects, especially for users of LCD screens, where there is a constant
backlight
A backlight is a form of illumination used in liquid crystal displays (LCDs). As LCDs do not produce light by themselves—unlike, for example, cathode ray tube (CRT), plasma (PDP) or OLED displays—they need illumination ( ambient light or a ...
.
This concept was first brought to the attention of Heap Media by a
blog post
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
, which estimated that
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
could save 750
megawatt hours a year by utilizing it for
CRT screens.
The homepage of Blackle provides a count of the number of watt hours claimed to have been saved by enabling this concept.
History
Blackle launched in January 2007. During this time, Blackle gained popularity and was featured in multiple
mainstream media outlets.
Blackle international, which translated blackle into
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
,
French,
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus'
Places
* Czech, ...
,
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
, and
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
was retired in 2019. While th
International pageis still up, every link listed has experienced
link rot
Link rot (also called link death, link breaking, or reference rot) is the phenomenon of hyperlinks tending over time to cease to point to their originally targeted file, web page, or server due to that resource being relocated to a new address ...
. As of 2021, the site is only available in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
.
See also
*
Light-on-dark color scheme
A light-on-dark color scheme —also called black mode, dark mode, dark theme, night mode, or lights-out (mode)— is a color scheme that uses light-colored text, icons, and graphical user interface elements on a dark background. It is often ...
*
Performance per watt
In computing, performance per watt is a measure of the energy efficiency of a particular computer architecture or computer hardware. Literally, it measures the rate of computation that can be delivered by a computer for every watt of power consu ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blackle.Com
Australian websites
Energy conservation
Environmental websites
Web services
Web service providers
Google
Computers and the environment
Internet properties established in 2007