Ecosia launches its web browser with 'green' features

A new browser from Ecosia has entered an already crowded market ruled by Google Chrome with about 65% share. Its makers claim that the customizable browser can load web pages "up to three times faster than most mainstream browsers thanks to our inbuilt ad-blocker."

However, the Ecosia browser's main selling point is its environment-friendly nature. Its makers will fund tree-plantation projects from the ad profits they earn as you use the browser. The concept is similar to Ecosia's search engine that launched more than a decade ago.

Earlier this year, Ecosia announced that over 200 million trees have been planted since 2009 in over 95,000 locations worldwide. The Germany-based search engine took about 3.5 years to reach this milestone after planting its first 100 million trees by July 2020.

Ecosia's CEO Christian Kroll said in a blog post:

The big turning point came in 2018 when I signed a legally binding commitment to ensure that Ecosia could never be sold and that 100% of our profits would always go to the planet. Today, your searches enable us to work with partners to plant and protect 1,250 species of trees across 95,000 locations globally.

Ecosia has invested in solar power plants to generate renewable energy to power the browser. It aims to produce 25Wh of renewable energy per user per day, which is enough to power a light bulb for three hours. Moreover, Ecosia says its solar plants have already produced "enough renewable energy to power all Ecosia searches twice over" since 2020.

The browser includes climate-focused features like a green leaf icon to highlight websites of planet-friendly organizations and climate pledge ratings for most-searched companies based on their publicly available response to the climate crisis.

Ecosia browser, which is now available to download, offers sponsored links to shop for products from various brands to have a stream of cash inflow apart from ads. You can choose what features you want to see on the home page, use dark mode, import settings from other browsers, and pick images from plantation projects as wallpaper.