SEO Glossary: Ecosia

 

Who founded the Ecosia search engine?

In 2009, business economist Christian Kroll launched the green search engine. From the outset, the entrepreneur from Saxony-Anhalt wanted to set up a non-profit company that was less concerned with maximizing profits and more with sustainability.

 

The first idea for the green search engine came to the current CEO of Ecosia GmbH during his travels through Latin America and Asia. There he experienced social injustice at first hand and decided to develop an ecological Internet search engine. In South America, the founder first programmed Forrestle, the predecessor of Ecosia. After his return to Germany, he set up Ecosia.

 

 

Distribution and concept of the green search engine

Ecosia is not necessarily one of the big players in Germany. Christian Kroll's search engine has a market share of just one percent. Surprisingly, the search engine was still in third place behind Bing and Google for desktop search queries at times. Ecosia receives around 100 million search queries per week.

 

Across Europe, Ecosia's market share in 2021 was 0.4 percent[1].

 

To this day, the search engine donates a considerable proportion of its profits - around 80 percent - to climate protection. The proceeds are used to plant trees, for which the company works together with environmentally friendly organizations. According to Ecosia itself, it has succeeded in planting 188 million trees together with other partners.

 

With the tree planting campaigns, Ecosia aims to improve the ecological components on site, among other things. In total, the company finances and implements more than 60 projects in various countries together with local partners.

 

These are the advantages of the Ecosia search engine

Compared to other search engines, Ecosia offers its users the following advantages as a green alternative:

 

• operates its own servers with solar energy
• invests part of its income in tree planting projects
• more than 15 million users
• GDPR-compliant
• Practical shortcut functions
• Ecosia blog with information on environmental protection topics
• Very transparent search engine with monthly financial reports
• attaches great importance to data protection

 

How the Ecosia search engine works

Strictly speaking, the Ecosia search engine is more of a search mask that uses the Bing search algorithm. Therefore, all search queries end up on the Bing servers, which then forward their answers to Ecosia.

 

Ecosia pays money to Microsoft for this, but in return receives a large part of the profits generated from the advertisements. Ecosia GmbH's business model is therefore similar to that of Google: the search engine is financed by advertisements, but is available to users free of charge.

 

Search engine shortcuts

Shortcuts are part of how the search engine works. With the help of these search tags, users can access the desired target pages on the Internet more quickly. Example: The abbreviation #w stands for Wikipedia, the search tag #i takes users straight to the image search.

 

Ecosia and data protection

In addition to environmentally friendly measures, the Ecosia search engine also wants to protect users' personal data. This is why the green alternative is trying to score points over the competition with its improved data protection.

 

For example, Ecosia anonymizes search queries and does not create user profiles. Furthermore, the company does not pass on any user data to third parties. External tracking tools are also not used. To protect user data from misuse, Ecosia sets up a secure SSL connection and encrypts the data.

 

Set the Ecosia search engine as default

If you want to use the search engine developed by Christian Kroll by default, you should proceed as follows:

 

Ecosia and Google Chrome

Open the Chrome settings and click on the menu item "Search engine". Then select Ecosia from the drop-down menu. Alternatively, you have the option of installing the extension via the Chrome Web Store.

 

Firefox

You can also find the Ecosia homepage in Firefox via the settings: Click on "Search" in the gear icon and select Ecosia as the default search engine. As with Chrome, there is also an add-on.

 

Safari

If you use Safari, you can get the Ecosia extension from the App Store. You can also find the green search engine via the menu item "Settings" and "Extensions".

 

Tip: For some years now, users have been able to set up the Ecosia browser as a smartphone app on Android and iOS devices. As the browser is based on the mobile version of Google Chrome, users should quickly find their way around.

 

 

What criticism is there of the Ecosia search engine?

Even though the search engine developed by Christian Kroll invests a lot in sustainable projects, experts and users criticize the search mask in the following points:

 

• In the search results, Ecosia lists companies that make profits from fossil fuels with a small factory symbol. Experts complain that the companies concerned are publicly pilloried by the labeling. In addition, the labels are incomplete, as arms companies or airlines are not displayed with corresponding symbols in search queries via Ecosia.
• "Trees change everything" is Ecosia's motto. For researchers, however, it is less about the number of trees and more about where they are planted. This means that planting new trees in tropical regions is particularly beneficial for the environment. In other regions with temperate climates, planting trees can even be counterproductive and contribute to greater global warming.
• In order for the search queries to contribute to more climate protection, the company has to earn money through advertisements. As a result, there is a risk that people who want to contribute to the planting of millions of trees through "donations" will not be interested in the actual search results. Real advertising customers or partners such as Google could lose interest as a result.
• Users often complain about the quality of search results. For specific search queries in particular, they often resort to an alternative such as Google.
• Another criticism is the dependency on Bing and Microsoft. If the search engine Bing were to block its access at some point, Ecosia would no longer be able to access its index and would therefore no longer generate its own search results.
• Further criticism relates to the information provided by the company, which cannot be independently verified. This applies, for example, to the rating system introduced by Ecosia. The icons awarded by the company for sustainability or for labeling fossil fuels, for example, could in theory be arbitrary in nature, as Ecosia does not disclose the basis of its calculations.

 

Ecosia and SEO: Can the search engine be used for your own online marketing?

Ecosia's search results are taken from the Bing index. If you want to use Ecosia for your own search engine optimization, you should first understand the Bing search algorithm and pay attention to the relevant ranking factors.

 

 

[1] Source reference: https://www.optimerch.de/lexikon/ecosia/