At first glance it does seem like a dumb marketing gimmick. And I'm not going to start using them, because I use Google via the Firefox toolbar.
Still, if hundreds of thousands of people were to switch to this search engine, in addition to being very profitable for Echocho, it would be a net gain for the environment over people using regular Yahoo. I doubt they can manage to fully cover the externalities of their existence, but it seems better to plant trees than to not plant trees.
Is TheHungerSite still around? They should publish statistics about how much good they have done in the world.
Still, if hundreds of thousands of people were to switch to this search engine, in addition to being very profitable for Echocho, it would be a net gain for the environment over people using regular Yahoo. I doubt they can manage to fully cover the externalities of their existence, but it seems better to plant trees than to not plant trees.
Is TheHungerSite still around? They should publish statistics about how much good they have done in the world.