I love the thought of planting trees while searching the web. It is said with Ecosia that it takes about 50 searches to plant one tree, and based on that, it takes me around two days to plant one tree based on my search routines. But, there are some things that I dislike about Ecosia as well. So, let me share my thoughts, and let me hear yours!
Let me first tell you, we need to take care of the earth and we need to stop polluting it. I don't know how exactly, but if searching with Ecosia can be a part of helping the case, I will for sure do so! Recently I also discovered how I could earn money with Presearch while planting trees with Ecosia, something that made it even cooler. But still... we need to take care of our earth.
Google vs Bing
I have always used Google to search. Well, there was a time when I used search engines such as Lycos and Altavista, but those days are long gone. Now it is all about Google. And, after searching with Google for some years, you get used to it, and almost dependent on it. First of all, Google is very good at local searches. In other words, when I search for something in a native language and looking for local information, Google is doing a way better job than Bing at giving me what I want to find. Sometimes when I search for something in Ecosia (Bing) in Hungarian or some other language, I simply get crazy results. Google, however, knows exactly what I want to find.
But, Google is also way better when it comes to actually show results. At first, this was kind of strange, but it didn't take much time for me to get used to it. In a way, this is Google's way of keeping people away from websites, and instead, they spend more time at the Google search result page. It isn't really fair towards the web site owners (from which they borrow the information), but that is the way it is, and it is easy to enjoy. What does this look like?
First, let me show you the search results as they are shown to me by Bing.
Here I get to see links to two YouTube videos, and the first search result is a news related article about the recent Cricket World Cup final. No matter what, I will have to keep on clicking in order to find the information I am looking for (if I will find it at all).
Now I do exactly the same search in Google. Look what I get.
Instead of showing me videos and links to articles, they automatically pull data from other websites and show me the results from the most recent cricket world cup matches. This is most likely a way better result for me than what Bing showed me, and if I want more information, I can just click the matches I want to know more about the get even more detailed information. The crazy thing is, I am still at Google.com, meaning that Google is following me around, instead of taking me to other websites.
These are some of the main differences that I have experienced between Google and Ecosia (Bing). So, what should I do? I have never been a big fan of Bing, but I don't like the feeling that Google knows all about me either. The Google search results are way better, but I want to use Ecosia. So, what to do?
In reality, I use Presearch as my search engine, then use Ecosia in Presearch, and then sometimes I add the #g symbol to see the search results in Google. In that way, I make money using Presearch, I plant trees using Ecosia, and I get to see my search results in either Google or Bing. It is a win-win situation for all of us, and most of all for nature!
Which search engine do you prefer? Do you have some other favorite? Maybe DuckDuckGo? I would love to hear your thoughts and comments!
