Today when I first went to Google, I immediately thought Firefox or my PC had some sort of virus going on. The entire Google frontpage is black today (as seen above), but it's no virus or reason for concern. Today Google has "shut off its lights", and is reminding people across the world to do the same, from 8 to 9 PM during their local time. The act is an effort to conserve energy for that hour. Here's more from Google about today's "Earth Hour":
Google users in the United States will notice today that we "turned the lights out" on the Google.com homepage as a gesture to raise awareness of a worldwide energy conservation effort called Earth Hour. As to why we don't do this permanently - it saves no energy; modern displays use the same amount of power regardless of what they display. However, you can do something to reduce the energy consumption of your home PC by joining the Climate Savers Computing Initiative.
On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Earth Hour invites people around the world to turn off their lights for one hour from 8:00pm to 9:00pm in their local time zone. On this day, cities around the world, including Copenhagen, Chicago, Melbourne, Dubai, and Tel Aviv, will hold events to acknowledge their commitment to energy conservation.
Do your best to observe today's energy conservation from 8 to 9pm, and encourage friends, family and neighbors to go dark also..It will be interesting to see what sorts of effects this has in future reports.
Read more about Earth Hour at Google and Earthhour.org.
