Ecosia browser released for Windows and macOS
Ecosia, the eco-friendly search engine, celebrated Earth Day by launching its web browser for desktop operating systems. The Ecosia browser is available on Windows and macOS.
The German company says that the browser is powered by the Sun, and that it will produce 25Wh of solar energy when you use the app. Ecosia invests all of its profits to plant trees, and for renewable energy projects. The company recently announced that it has managed to plant 200 Million trees around the World.
TechCrunch notes that Ecosia browser is based on Google's open source Chromium project. So, unsurprisingly, the interface is quite similar to Chrome. That said, Ecosia's browser is not open source.
New Tab Page
The New Tab page is colorful, and you can customize the background. Ecosia offers its own set of wallpapers, which are from its tree planting projects, and there are pretty cool.
The new tab page has a search box that you can use to look up stuff on the web. There is also a handy import button to bring over your browsing history, favorites, passwords, and auto complete data from other browsers including
You'll also notice that it has a section for sponsored links, aka shortcuts. The company says that when you shop using these websites, the profits it earns via commissions are used for Ecosia's climate projects. That's nice, but I feel like this is not ideal for a user's privacy. If you want to read about Ecosia's privacy policy, head to this page.
Ecosia browser's new tab page also displays some stats about its climate impact, such as how many trees it has planted, how much money it has donated, and there are shortcuts to the company's financial reports, its tree planting projects. Want a cleaner new tab experience? The quick settings panel allows you to disable the top sites, sponsored links, climate impact, and the about Ecosia sections.
Default Search Engine
The browser uses Ecosia as the default search engine, no surprise there. But you can change it to Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo or Brave from the Settings.
Built-in ad blocker
Ecosia browser comes with a built-in ad blocker that can prevent advertisements, and it has filter lists such as Anti Adblock filters, Easy Privacy Anti Tracker, EasyList and some uBlock filters. It does have "acceptable ads" enabled, you can toggle it.
Note: Ecosia browser is set to send anonymous data such as browsing usage and crash reports to help improve the app. You can disable these options under the Settings > Privacy and security section.
The browser supports extensions from the Chrome Web store, and if you want more control over the content blocker, you can install the uBlock Origin add-on, and turn off the browser's built-in ad blocker.
Ecosia AI Chat
Every browser maker seems to be focusing on artificial intelligence features, and Ecosia browser is no exception to this. You can access the Ecosia AI Chat from this page. It is currently in beta and available in select countries. You can use it to generate replies to your queries, summarize text, and other content. Ecosia AI saves your chat in the browser, and you can delete the history at any time.
The chatbot is powered by OpenAI's language model, and your chat data will be stored in OpenAI's database for up to 30 days for internal and legal purposes. Ecosia AI Chat is also supported on third-party browsers.
You can download Ecosia browser for Windows 10 or later, and macOS Catalina 10.15 or later, from the official website.
Note: The download is a web installer, don't forget to uncheck the option to run the app when your computer starts. The browser is also available for Android and iOS.
You can find most of Chrome's features in Ecosia browser as well, including the Memory Saver, Energy Saver, Tab hover preview, accessibility options, etc. The app has a Light Theme and a Dark Theme. Ecosia browser is fairly easy to get used to, especially if you are familiar with a Chromium based browser. The climate change projects are interesting, but the problem is, the app doesn't really offer much to set itself apart from other browser. This could make it difficult to convince users to switch over from rivals. But more competition is always welcome.
If, however, you are looking for more privacy-friendly browsers, you may want to take a look at DuckDuckGo, Brave or Firefox.
What would a browser developer need to do to convince users to migrate to their app?
Thanks @Ashwin for the article! :]
Investing in the arms industry would be a nice addition. Plus you could then use the trees for some decent old school camouflage. Ok I might try it and compare with Edge in everyday use.
>”The chatbot is powered by OpenAI’s language model”
But I thought I read that OpenAI uses enormous amounts of energy. Seems like it would be counterproductive to Ecosia’s environmental goals to include it.
I won’t be trying it as I don’t use MacOS, Windows, or closed-source programs.
Sums up my feelings as well. I hope they change course on source code and figure out a way to do energy-efficient AI.
If it’s powered by the sun then I guess it won’t work at night??
A closed-source web browser. No thanks!
We need an Oldest First option for reading comments here. I’m getting tired of reading from the bottom up.
It would be nice to be able to sort comments by time/date for sure.
Whats the point? Its just another Chrome browser. Could we some have based off Firefox?
librewolf, iceweasel, tete009 ?
Floorp browser is Japanese based and fork of Firefox.
So, if we all use Ecosia and leave it on, will we get another ice age?
Powered by marketers
The virtue signaling in this is crazy…. first they wait for the nonsense of ‘Earth Day’ to release it, why not before? oh because they needed to post something ‘big’ for the nonsense days some humans have named to whatever they want.
Also, it’s all BS ‘we care about environment’ if they cared, they wouldn’t be an internet company and less having AI which need even more power/servers to run.
Their ‘clean energy’ is already a fraud, because to create solar panels you need to mine and get rare materials to be created, it is not like they just put an item under the sun and it worked, no, it needs to badly transfer from sun to common energy to run these devices, so no, it is not ‘pro environment’ doesn’t matter how these propagandist try to twist it and say it.
Nobody who uses the internet, especially phones and computers, care about the environment as much as they claim… The excuse I always get is “but phones and computers are necessary” and then that’s all the excuse they need to keep getting new devices, using internet 24/7 and pretending they care about the environment.
Since Sun is not present 24/7 and there are cloudy days and less sun, you need a battery, and batteries are the worst for the environment, and not only for the environment but they are also built upon adult and children slavery, especially in Africa. So while people use their phones and can sleep good at night, some kids are getting sick from mining more materials to ‘store’ these ‘clean’ energies.
Now, talking about Ecosia, their whole “we plant trees” have been a fraud as well. For people who don’t know, they don’t do crap, they only give money to organizations to do it. Who is going to verify who is doing the right thing with the money and who isn’t? nobody.
All I know is I watched many videos and none of those videos made sense, in fact, most of the places they give money to, are not places where trees are exactly needed.
Nicaragua, for example, they showcase a video with some people carrying some little trees, and they are in a pretty much abundant forest, Nicaragua is under developed in most places away from the Cities, so they are covered with trees and plants a lot. So seeing people walking with 3 plants/baby trees, among a forest, but somehow getting thousands of money for that is just ridiculous.
It’s not like they are planting seeds which need more maintenance, no, it is already grown trees that cost like a dollar.
So Ecosia business and virtue signaling seems just another attempt to promote the same propaganda anti-environment that has been spread for so many years by people like Al Gore who have a nice mansion next to the coast in California, and the many people like him who get in individual Jets to go to their ‘meetings’. I saw some politicians getting in bicycle to go around the city, after flying in their own private Jet.
The worst is not releasing a Browser, anyone can do it, but saying ‘it is green’ BS is the biggest issue, especially when promoting AI and all that.
Internet is incompatible with the environment, unlike these companies claim. Running servers 24/7, users running their devices 24/7 to use such services, using more computers and tablets and phones for every member of the family (unlike in the past which was usually a computer per household) just to run these internet services…. etc
It’s just crazy how people think these lies can be pro-environmentalist, plastic is more promoted now than in the past, more components have to be minded to create devices and cars and ‘smart devices’, everything needs a ‘lithium battery’ these days, so how is internet even remotely close to be pro-environmentalist?
Everything that used to be ‘clean’ and truly renewable, was replaced by plastic and synthetic crap.
It’s just so much ridiculous virtue signaling by companies like Ecosia based on lies, or their lies, because those ‘leaders’ talking about the doom of the earth because cows are the same people who don’t stop traveling in their private jets and having 10 cars in a caravan for ‘security reasons’.
Yeah having wallpapers of ‘trees’ is so innovative and new…. what a joke and people who use Ecosia and feel superior for ‘helping the environment’ are just worst than the company itself.
can you write ‘virtue signaling’ again? six times is not enough chud
Well at least he didn’t throw woke in there too, although I’m sure he wanted too. Also what environmentalist promotes plastic?
Never buy from companies that promote by Virtue Signaling. Buy it only for value. All those Sun and Flowers are pure bogus.
Hard Pass forever.
Does it feature shots of John Kerry’s and Bill Gates’ private jets for the wallpaper?
Anyone tried this on Android? Just wanted to know if it’s based on Kiwi Browser and has the ability to install Google Chrome extensons as well. No, I’m not gonna try it myself because I hate trees and I despise the sun almost as much as I detest hippie girls with dreadlocks with paintbuckets in museums and feminine men in sandals glued to the highways.
That’s pretty far fetched. Ridiculous even. I’m 100% certain this browser is not powered by the sun, neither is my computer. I am 100% certain this browser is powered by Google and leftist capitalists that seem to think “going green” is a smart angle to use on software. Enjoy your “bound to fail” joke of a project, Greta.
“Green. Powered by the sun. Planting trees” sounds great, but just tell us what’s in for you! How it is sustainable to plant trees if I simply use your bandwidth to search for stupid things and give nothing in return? Sounds just like solving world hunger with linking posts.
I’m discovering with this article the release of Ecosia browser, “based on Google’s open source Chromium project”.
No idea therefor concerning the company’s browser but should I dare a comparison with its search engine that I’d be circumspect (only, not suspicious) : Ecosia Search, whatever the green label it emphasizes on and, I presume, follows, remains nevertheless that it retrieves its results from Bing, which others such as Qwant do as well, but not within its proxy which means that 3rd-party connections to Bing servers are established from the very user’s device. Personally I avoid Bing as I avoid as far as i possible can all Microsoft servers, these being blocked system-wide, which means that Ecosia Search delivers here no results. Qwant Search engine, which I avoid now given it has lately decided to block ad-blockers, if it calls upon Bing servers for (at least some of) the user’s queries, at least does it on its own behalf (no 3rd-party connections to Bing severs are displayed by UBO) and so may bypass my system-wide Bing and other blocklists). Many known or lesser-known search engines rely on Bing, partially or fully, but as long as they do so on their own behalf the only problematic in my mind is that of the pertinence of the Bing delivered search results, not my privacy (unless to consider my IP being served underground to 3rd-party instances, which remains speculation as far as I’m concerned).
From the Ecosia privacy policy:
“We are gradually rolling out our new unique search offer. This will happen over several months and won’t apply to everyone at the same time. This means that when you search through Ecosia, we work with either Microsoft Bing or Google to provide you with search results and ads. In order to do this, we automatically collect data required by search partners to prevent bot attacks and ad fraud – which includes your IP address and search terms.
For a growing number of users, we can provide Google results and advertisements. By default, Google will use limited cookies and local storage to help defend against fraudulent traffic, to select advertisements, for measuring advertising performance and to develop and improve services. Google will not set any cookies for personalisation without your consent.
We will ask for your consent to implement Microsoft Clarity when you receive results from Microsoft Bing. Microsoft Clarity captures how you interact with our website through behavioral metrics in individual search sessions and is not tied to a user profile. The information is used for site and advertising optimization, as well as fraud protection. For more information about how Microsoft collects and uses your data, visit Microsoft’s privacy statement and Microsoft Clarity documentation.
Microsoft Bing does also offer personalized search results and ads. This service requires a cookie to be set on your browser which creates a personal profile. We will ask for your consent before enabling this and you can change your choice at any time in your cookie preferences. More information on cookies and how to take control of your preferences can be found in the “What about cookies?” section.”
No, thank you.
All the chuds are coming in the comment section
If chud means looking logically at marketing gimmicks, I am proud to be a chud.
Of course it has AI BS.
Powered by the sun? More like powered by sunflower oil.
I want to try it, but it has no Linux builds, I will have to run it through Wine or Proton.
Powered by the Sun!!!??? Such nonsense. Closed source? More nonsense.
Powered by the sun? What delusion. No, just plain ole fraud.
Would highly recommend to all users of this software to reduce their carbon footprint by quitting the internet.
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