Īs of November 2021, Ecosia users conducted over 10,000 searches every minute. The company states in its privacy policy that it does not create personal profiles based on search history or use external tracking tools like Google Analytics. Searches are encrypted (presumably with standard HTTPS) and not stored permanently, nor is data sold to third-party advertisers. In 2018, Ecosia committed to becoming a privacy-friendly search engine. Advertisements provided by Microsoft Advertising appear alongside search results, and in 2022 Ecosia stated that it earns "a few cents" on every click of an ad, as well as a portion of the price of a purchase made through an affiliate link. Įcosia's search results have been provided by Bing since 2017. Advertisements were delivered by Yahoo! as part of a revenue sharing agreement with the company. Richard Aird, who is the Director of Service Delivery and Change at the University said that the University was approached by the Students Union “to explore the possibility of setting up the Ecosia search engine through one of our internet browsers and we were happy to work with them to support this initiative”.Ĭommenting on the benefits of the change, Aird said that the switch to Ecosia offers “the ability to search the Internet using a search engine which is powered solely through renewable energy, and which has planted almost 150 million trees through its income generation.”Īird added that the University “believe that offering students the ability to use Ecosia is a small but effective contribution to the University’s sustainability policy, demonstrating environmental and social responsibility and we are grateful to the Students’ Union for working together with us on this.Ecosia website showing tree counter, June 2022Īt launch, the search engine provided a combination of search results from Yahoo! and technologies from Microsoft Bing and Wikipedia. Mackay added that the Students Union were “so pleased” with the change and that “the Information Services team were very open to exploring all ways of integrating more environmental initiatives wherever possible.” All of the searches will add up to a grand total for our campus’ tree count.” Students who do not wish to use Ecosia can still use other browsers. “This change will be applied to student user profiles on the next logon. When approached for comment by Brig about the integration of Ecosia search engine onto on campus computers via the Microsoft Edge browser or using the university AppsAnywhere software, Vice President Communities Alyson Mackay said: The university is the fifth in Scotland to switch to Ecosia as its default search engine and will be able to track the number of trees planted as a result of searches made on campus computers via the search engine. The move, which was a collaboration between the University and the Students Union will mean that when using campus based computers and the Microsoft Edge browser, students will be contributing to the planting of trees each time they use the Ecosia search engine through the address bar at the top of the Microsoft Edge browser. The environmentally friendly search engine Ecosia has become the default search engine for students who use the Microsoft Edge browser on campus computers for student user profiles.
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