Guys, here is a juicy twist to the recent infamous Google story.

Harvard University physicist Alex Wissner-Gross, who authored the research report which was reported to give the example of a kettle to explain the environmental hazards caused by "Googling," has been quoted by TechNewsWorld as saying, "Our work has nothing to do with Google. Our focus was exclusively on the Web overall, and we found that it takes on average about 20 milligrams of CO2 per second to visit a Web site."

He slammed The Sunday Times of London, which carried the story which said "Performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea, according to new research." He said that it was a "really easy way to sell papers."

However, he confirmed that the Times quoted him correctly in the story as saying, "A Google search has a definite environmental impact" and "Google operates huge data centers around the world that consume a great deal of power." He was, however, clueless as to from where the Times came up with the example involving tea kettles.

Google has also responded to the media reports saying that the energy used per search is minimal. It added that a typical Google search generates about 0.2g of CO2 in its official blog. Google has also demanded to see a copy of the study, and Wissner-Gross says that he is more than happy to send them one.

 

Google added that since its search is fast and also because of other actions performed before the search even starts (such as building the search index), the energy per search amounts to 0.0003 kWh or 1 kJ, and says that a human body burns the same amount of energy in ten seconds.