Green Daily

I'm always intrigued at all the novel little ways people are discovering to reduce their energy consumption -- and this Black is the New Green movement is yet another example.

It's a idea started by Mark Ontkush, a tech blogger, who speculated that, because Google is used by so many millions of people every day, that if they alone changed their background color from white to black, it would save the world around 3,000 Megawatt-hours every year. When you compare that with the mere 18,000 Kilowatt-hours the average two-story, three-bedroom home uses over that same time period, the concept starts to become very interesting. What if all website backgrounds were black, instead of white? The numbers would be enormous.

However, don't expect to see any broad-sweeping changes in the near future. Internet users have come to expect bright, warm website backgrounds -- so much so, that they'll spend more time on sites like this than those with darker color schemes. Subsequently, sites that buck the trend risk losing visitors (and therefore ad revenue).

On the other hand, there are small ways you can make a difference. Instead of using the standard Google, try search engines like Darkoogle, Google Black, or Greygle. You can also customize the color scheme of your Twitter, MySpace, or Facebook page to one with darker colors, so they require less energy to view.

It's a small change, but, over time, these are the things that make a difference.