Remember when you first met Google, the motto was “Don’t be evil”? which was transformed in 2015 to “Do the right thing.”
Most of you will argue that this perfectly symbolizes Google’s evolution over the past years. Taking the critical stuff and pushing them on the bottom of the page on their guidelines page.
Every Google search uses the same energy that turns on a 60-watt light bulb for 17 seconds. A small insignificant amount, you might think, but when there are 79,009 searches per second, it adds to a significant amount. I bet you haven’t heard or thought about any such thing before searching for things on the internet. Do you know that some search engines do social good to people?
Hold your breath and buckle your seatbelt, we are here to update you on six alternative search engines that don’t promise “Don’t be evil” – instead they do good with every search that you do.
Give Water
The first in the list is a search engine called “Give Water” that aims to solve the poor water quality issue one search at a time. The company was formed when the CEO, Michael Feeley, met Scott Harrison, the founder of Charity and got inspired instantly to make a difference with his work. When a user searches anything and then clicks on the paid ads, the site generates revenue. Give Water than shares its profits with partners from various charities that are working on sanitation facilities and busy in improving the quality of the water.
However, GiveWater founders warn not to click on ads to do some good. This might terminate the affiliate agreement, which can throw them out of business. GiveWater is not totally a non-profit. It is just a new breed of companies that aim to do good and build a business around that good.
Ekoru
Another search engine – Ekoru aims to share 60% of its profits with several partner charities that deal with animal welfare and reforestation. They pick different charities every month. Moreover, Ekoru claims not to store any user data or information on their data servers. The only downside is that Ekoru is limited to some countries, which makes it difficult for everyone to access the search engine and make a difference.
Ecosia
A German-based search engine that plant trees with the profits that they get on every search query. Ecosia managed to plant 75 million trees at the time of this writing. A ten-year-old search engine that developed a reputation of the search engine with a conscience and won a couple of awards for its noble cause. Furthermore, the company has its solar energy to run its data center instead of relying on external providers. Up till now, the company invested over $10 million in planting trees and successfully able to cut costs by 22 cents per tree.
Everyclick
This UK-based search engine takes the affiliate model one step ahead. Everyclick was founded in 2005 as a tool for raising funds for charities, which later added Bing as its primary search partner, along with its tool Give as you live that raises money for charitable causes. Tons of websites promise to give something back to users with every purchase but Everyclick directs that money to charity instead. Like other search engines, Everyclick provides a browser extension making the whole process simple and easy. The Give as you live program is compatible with more than 4,400 various stores online. You can even raise money for charity at no cost to you.
Givero
Taking a different approach to helping others, the search engine Givero allows its users to select which causes they want to back. The privacy-centric inspiration is taken straight from DuckDuckGo. The users don’t need any profile, and no history is ever stored regarding the searches, and most importantly, the tool is not hooked up with any affiliate site either. Although the search engine is merely a new addition in the marketplace, the good news is that people are helping the tool in brining new charities on board. Users can support environmental and children charities as well, with 50% of the company revenue going to charitable partners.
Lilo
At the time of writing, Lilo has a half-million users that are doing 40 million searches, which raised around $2.5 million in charity. Along with protecting user data, the search engine prevents ads from tracking the privacy of users. The most exciting part is the waterdrop system. With every search, there will be a waterdrop and every waterdrop can be assigned to the charity of your choice to help you fund them.
In the End
Whether you use Google or even Bing to search for things, you may want to try these search engines in parallel and contribute your part in making our world a better place.
Most of these search engines give you an option of a browser extension and other goodies just like all other mainstream search engines. The marketplace for socially conscious search engines is thriving, which means that you won’t struggle to find one that supports a charity that you care about.