Ecosia search engine

LightFlare

Just had an email at work telling us that work is introducing Ecosia as our search engine.

Anything we should be wary/aware of with this particular engine ?

Le_Kirk

Why not ask "work"? Do you have an IT department? Looks like they use revenue to plant trees.  I just asked Auntie Google, loads of stuff came up.

cerebus

Is your work going to be blocking Google?

Just had a mooch and the search is powered by either Microsoft bing or Google, so you can expect your data to be hoovered up in the usual way 

RumRat

cerebus said:

Is your work going to be blocking Google?

Just had a mooch and the search is powered by either Microsoft bing or Google, so you can expect your data to be hoovered up in the usual way 

You might need to 'mooch' some more..... "Ecosia may be safer than Google. The company is also privacy-focused, refusing to collect and sell your data — ensuring it never goes anywhere"
.‍Ecosia Review: Is It Legit? How Can It Plant Trees For Free? (goodgoodgood.co)

LightFlare

Le_Kirk said:

Why not ask "work"? Do you have an IT department? Looks like they use revenue to plant trees.  I just asked Auntie Google, loads of stuff came up.

Lets just say - work IT department has made some pretty catastrophic errors in the past with introducing different/new things and not checking full compatibility with a host of programs etc that we use

So I was wondering if any one had any real life feedback on it's functionality etc as opposed to what can be found on the net where it's hard to filter out the truth from the exaggerations from the marketing blurb

I cant see any mention of whether they will still allow Google - but the memo states - "we will be making Ecosia our  default search engine"

This possibly suggests individuals may be bale to use different engines regardless

flaneurs_lobster

Any chance that your IT department / management might have explained why they were making the change?

LightFlare

flaneurs_lobster said:

Any chance that your IT department / management might have explained why they were making the change?

nope - appart from the usual shift towards all things "green" and sustainable (we are an NHS Trust)

"This is part of our response to the climate emergency – we must consider the wider impact of all practices within health services if we are to secure a livable future for all. The NHS itself is accountable for 4% of UK emissions. "

Is all they have said regarding the reasoning behind the change

flaneurs_lobster

The scariest words in the tech world

"NHS" , "IT" and "Change".

LightFlare

Agreed - hence my initial question 

cerebus

RumRat said:

cerebus said:

Is your work going to be blocking Google?

Just had a mooch and the search is powered by either Microsoft bing or Google, so you can expect your data to be hoovered up in the usual way 

You might need to 'mooch' some more..... "Ecosia may be safer than Google. The company is also privacy-focused, refusing to collect and sell your data — ensuring it never goes anywhere"
.‍Ecosia Review: Is It Legit? How Can It Plant Trees For Free? (goodgoodgood.co)

You need to read some more

It says in the privacy policy that it "may" have to share some of your data with bing or Google...

Of course nobody bothers to read the privacy policy....

cerebus

I would be asking how much of a difference switching to a search engine nobody has heard of that claims to be climate friendly and has only 20 million users of that 4% the NHS is apparently responsible for , given people don't like change, have their preferred search engine and won't just switch cause the NHS decides it prefers this one.

How many NHS staff use NHS computers to do searches on a regular basis and don't use their personal devices?

To me and I'm being cynical here but it smacks of a marketing ploy to make the NHS sound green rather than actually making any noticeable difference whatsoever.