Ecosia Review
Unlike the corporate giants, Ecosia actually donates more than three-quarters of their ads generate income to plant trees. This is a noble example, which others can only follow.
In terms of usage, Ecosia works just like any other search engine. You go to www.ecosia.org and you have a search box where you can enter your query. On the top right corner of the screen, you have a tree icon, which indicates how many searches you’ve made.
On average, you need to make around 45 searches to fund planting one tree. So, if you’re one of those people who make hundreds of searches per day, you can actually contribute towards planting a couple of trees on a daily basis.
There’s no way knowing that doesn’t make you feel good.
The company stands out for its complete transparency. They publish their
financial reports every month with a detailed overview of their income, operational costs, and investments.
If you’re worried about
privacy, Ecosia also claims to be protecting it. The company states it does not sell your data and does not use external tracking tools. All searches are anonymized within a week. The connection is securely encrypted and you can turn off all tracking from your browser settings.
Ecosia also has a browser extension, which can automatically replace Google search with Ecosia search. This means you will be able to use Ecosia search directly from your address bar.