Reducing, reusing and recycling? Check. Biking more, driving less? Check. Planting trees while browsing? Not yet? Let’s change that!

Ecosia is a search engine that uses advertising income to plant trees. It’s an innovative, hassle-free way for you to help the environment, all while browsing the Internet. It’s completely free; the actual “cost” is getting accustomed to a search engine which isn’t yet as powerful as the search giant Google. However, this isn’t so much of an effort considering the significant positive impact it has on the environment.

Getting Ecosia on your devices

Ecosia is available as an extension to make it the default web browser for Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

For Android mobile phones and tablets, as well as iOS devices such as iPhones and iPads, you can download Ecosia’s web browser app from Google Play Store and App Store. It's important to mention that the app requires at least Android 7.0 and iOS or iPadOS 13.0 to work properly, but in the case of Apple devices, having iOS 14 or newer will ensure access to all functionalities.

Green browsing: a first glance

Opening Ecosia for the first time on your phone, you’re reassured it’s “the simplest way to be climate-active every day while browsing the web”. The all-shades-of-green trees in the background keep the environmental goal in sight. Green is the main color throughout the app’s interface, maintaining visual appeal without being tiring.

Tapping “Get started” initiates a guided “tour” of Ecosia’s main characteristics and goals (you can also skip it and get your browsing on). Some of the information shared tells us that Ecosia:

•  is the greenest free way to search;
•  helps fund reforestation and renewable energy projects around the world using 100% of its profits;
• is a collective effort of over 20 million people in more than 30 countries, in more than 60 projects, and has already planted more than 205 million trees;
• is completely transparent as regards its finances, showing earnings and investments in trees and climate action.

At the end of the photo carousel, the Continue button takes you to the browser’s home page, similar to Google’s. The search bar invites you to “Search and plant trees”, and right next to it, you see the ad-blocking icon, the tabs, and the three dots menu.

The main page features “Most visited pages”, a “Climate impact” section displaying Ecosia’s real-time numbers (trees planted, and total money dedicated to climate action), Ecosia news, and About Ecosia, with details on financial reports, tree planting projects, and privacy policies.

At first glance, it all looks and feels just like other popular browsers.

Ecosia vs. Google and Google Chrome

Ecosia’s design and interface look familiar, and that’s a good thing. However, when you use the app is when you notice where it falls short and start missing Google and Chrome. Here are a couple of my findings:

•  the search results are not as thorough as Google’s (Ecosia’s search algorithms are Bing’s, and Google’s the king, so it’s easy to “lose” this battle)
•  there are some features missing from the browser, like Zoom, Extensions and Add-ons, and Translate.

Ecosia is on the rise

Ecosia may run behind Google, but it’s definitely growing. As a young company with a strong commitment to sustainability, it continually works on improving users’ browsing experience. Recent updates include better search results, green features, AI chat, and more.

Conclusion

Taking a chance on Ecosia is definitely worth it. If you’re environmentally-conscious, or want to be, using it is a great and easy way to contribute to helping the planet with minimal effort. So… Planting trees while browsing? Check!