For Greener Good, Some Say Google Should Go Black

LittleJohn pointed out this effort by Heap Media, which posits that computers exert less energy if they display black screens instead of white ones. This does make sense considering on older TV sets, light only shines through areas that deviate from the darkness you see when the machine is off.

This trivia is not without motivation. To generate an energy-saving movement of sorts, Heap is promoting the notion of a black Google, which would save (literally) heaps of energy if it joined the dark side, considering the number of searches it supports. To get the search giant to see the light, users are encouraged to make Blackle their homepage.

LittleJohn's right: The name "Blackle's" totally forced. But that aside, there are psychological reasons to go white and not black. To start, people are generally under the impression that a white website loads faster than a dark one.

But to do our part, we tried using Blackle for an afternoon. That shit will bum you out, man. Halfway though the first hour we were Blackling mascara and reading emo-goth blogs. We even turned down the lights in our workstations and became little cocoons of quiet suffering.

Not cute. But interesting nonetheless.