Overhead of a Google Search..

In my very last lecture of undergraduate life, my lecturer brought out a really interesting point about the overhead of a google search, which we perform really often.

I found out that Harvard University physicist Alex Wissner-Gross had done the math on that and estimated each Google search is responsible for 7 grams of Carbon Emissions. To put that in less virtual terms, he suggests every two searches generate as much carbon dioxide as it does to boil a kettle of water for tea. In terms of greenhouse gases, one Google search is equivalent to about 0.2 grams of CO2. The current EU standard for tailpipe emissions calls for 140 grams of CO2 per kilometer driven, but most cars don't reach that level yet. Thus, the average car driven for one kilometer produces as many greenhouse gases as a thousand Google searches.

Google explains that issue in its official blog as follows. "Queries vary in degree of difficulty, but for the average query, the servers it touches each work on it for just a few thousandths of a second. Together with other work performed before your search even starts (such as building the search index) this amounts to 0.0003 kWh of energy per search, or 1 kJ. For comparison, the average adult needs about 8000 kJ a day of energy from food, so a Google search uses just about the same amount of energy that your body burns in ten seconds."

So its time to think twice before a google search. Having said so, I truly believe that no software Engineer in this world can survive without a google search.