American Physicist, Google Argue Over Search Engine's Carbon Footprint

Cambridge, MA (AHN) - Harvard University physicist Alex Wissner-Gross and search engine Google are arguing over the carbon footprint of an Internet search.

Wissner-Gross estimates it at 7 grams of carbon dioxide or the equivalent of boiling a kettle of water, while Google maintains it is only 0.2 grams. American research company Gartner said the IT industry is the source of 2 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.

The basis by Wissner-Gross' is the electricity used by a computer terminal and power used by large data centers run by Google in different parts of the world. The fast results of a Google engine search are due to its simultaneous use of several data banks.

He maintained Google did not differ from other data center operators which have to use extra energy to produce fast results. Wissner-Gross is developing the co2stats.com portal to help firms identify energy inefficient aspects of their websites.

In a statement, Google said, "We've made great strides to reduce the energy used by out data centers, but we still want clean and affordable sources of electricity for the power that we do use." Google pointed out it co-founded the Climate Savers Computing Initiative in 2007 to curb energy used by computers by 50 percent by 2010.

Matt Rosoff, lead analyst of Directions on Microsoft, said at the ongoing electronics show in Las Vegas Microsoft entered into a tie-up agreement with Dell Computers to ensure Google will not monopolize the search engine business.