When you consider that Google.co.uk and Google.com had a massive 90.56% share of the UK search market in May of this year and that this figure was only marginally lower in the months leading up to this representative period, then it would be fair to say that on the basis of the search words we enter into our search engine Google knows quite a lot about us.
But how much do we know about Google? Which facts do you find most interesting and which most intriguing?
That Google has the largest network of translators in the world, for example. Or the fact that Google was initially against the idea of having the name of its company introduced into the English language as a verb as they thought that this could significantly affect the value of Google as a brand name? That 99% of Google’s annual revenue is obtained from Adwords and that revenue sky rocketed from $19m in 2000 to $26bn in 2009? (bad news for AltaVista who turned down an offer to snap up the PageRank technology which Larry Page and Sergey Brin used to set up Google for a paltry $1m). Or that the employees at Google are entitled to three free meals a day and that on one day in the week they are allowed to – no, urged to – work on projects of their own to encourage new ideas, promote creativity and create an atmosphere which the workforce feels happy in?
And what about the servers and computers that form the hub of the organisation? How much power do the combined computer centres at Google consume? The answer is 260 million watts per year (Of course if you don’t believe me, you could always google it). Which is how much about 200,000 households – or the equivalent of a small city – require over the same period.
That sounds like a lot. And it is. But Google is nonetheless a global giant that cares about the effect it has on the environment and the gargantuan amount of power it consumes. Google has already implemented countless programs and initiatives to reduce both energy consumption and the company’s carbon footprint. The servers are extremely energy efficient and consume about half as much electricity than normal data centres. In addition, Google has been a carbon-neutral company since 2007.
Ok, so because of the company’s sheer size, Google is making a massive contribution to help save the environment and, at the risk of sounding too dramatic, ultimately our planet. But what difference can a change in our own individual behavioural patterns make?
More than you think. You only have to multiply your contribution – however small or insignificant it may at first seem – by one thousand, one million or even one billion to realise what difference each of us could make. And just so as to keep everything in perspective, Google, the company which according to the Forbes list is ranked at 17 in the world with regard to market value and at 45 with regard to profit, lets goats crop the grass around the Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California. The company could afford a whole fleet of lawnmowers, but that is not what setting an example is about. No idea – or contribution – is too wayward as not to be thought over (see the Google Green Site to find out more about the company’s innovative, forward-thinking ideas and solutions).
So what does all this tell us? That environmentalism, is not just a word, it is a conviction. And that everybody and anybody has a responsibility towards the planet.
So do your bit now and see where you can save energy and at the same time save money by cutting the energy consumption in your home, office or workplace and unearthing those greedy little energy gobblers which squander your precious power, hike up your electricity bill and collectively have a such an enormous negative impact on the environment.
The BX11 energy cost meter from Trotec can show you exactly how much each of your electrical appliances is consuming and how big a saving you could make if you were to use your energy more wisely and think twice about switching off a set in stand-by or switching to a more modern appliance which you have already put off buying far for too long anyway.
Trotec. Because green is not just a colour. It’s a way of thinking.
