March 29, 2008

Google in black for green cause

by Brian Turner

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Google has changed the look of Google.co.uk from white to black, in order to support Earth Hour - when lights in participating cities are switched off for an hour. However, in doing so, Google’s link to Google.com is now a broken redirect.

Don’t panic if you load up Google.co.uk today and see everything has gone black - you haven’t been infected with malware.

Instead, Google are showing their support for Earth Hour - an initiative that encourage cities and their residents to switch off lighting for an hour between 8pm-9pm local time.

The aim is to help save energy and raise energy conservation awareness.

The campaign begins in Sydney, and Bangkok, London and Chicago will all follow suit.

However, in showing their support for Earth Hour, Google have inadvertently broken contact with Google.com - the link at the bottom right of Google.co.uk for visitors to go to Google.com leads to a redirect error.

And because typing Google.com in the address bar redirects the user to Google.co.uk, it means for now that Google.com is no longer accessible from the UK for normal internet users.

Another reason to stop forcing geotargeting on users? Or just another way to try and save energy? :)

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Story link: Google in black for green cause

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