Google Turns Lights Off for Earth Hour

Despite the fact that Google said Blackle, the all-black site based on the company’s search engine technology that claimed to save energy, was BS, the search giant turned its home page black for Earth Hour this weekend.

Google said the gesture was aimed at raising awareness for the event, which advocated that people around the globe turn their lights out for one hour on Saturday night. The company said it supported Earth Hour because it was “timely” and “important.” (We covered a similar event held in San Francisco back in October called Lights Out.)

At the same time, however, Google said — yet again — that turning its site black does not save any energy.

As to why we don’t do this permanently — it saves no energy; modern displays use the same amount of power regardless of what they display.

Google said if PC owners are actually interested in saving energy, they should join the Climate Savers Computing Initiative. And presumably not make Blackle their homepage.