Environ-Mentalism targets Google

Slashdot reports that a blogger by the name of Mark Ontkush claims that Google, with its white background, consumes 74 watts of power whereas if it changed the background colour to black it would "only" use 59 watts. Heap Media, listening to these claims have created a black version of Google's search page appropriately named Blackle. Really though, the saving in energy is negligible and is apparently so small as to be within the error margin of most power meters. The Wall Street Journal did an investigation into Mark's claims and concluded that turning down the brightness of the monitor had a far greater effect than any change of background colour could produce. The small power saving is also only applicable to those using CRT monitors (now in the minority) as LCDs consume the same (small amount) or power no matter what is displayed on screen.