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Purpose over Profit: GOOD Goes 100% Ad-Free

We are an online community created around a smart and easy to access information hub which is focused on providing proven global and local insights about sustainability

29 Oct, 2024

This post was originally published on Good Search

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It’s possible: a web search free from the commercial influences of the advertising industry and tech giants.

GOOD stands for Purpose over Profit. We are now making a bold move by declaring our web search will be 100% ad-free and independent of Big Tech. This change significantly enhances the search experience, strengthens digital sovereignty, and reduces our carbon footprint.

With this decision, we are breaking away from the norm and elevating GOOD to a new level. Most alternative search engines rely on the search indices of Google and Bing, including the advertisements that often distract rather than guide users to their intended goals.

Resisting Commercial Pressure

When Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in 1998, they envisioned a search engine free of advertising to maintain the integrity and quality of results. However, things turned out differently: in its latest annual report, Google reported advertising revenues of an astonishing $239 billion—a staggering figure that illustrates the advertising industry’s influence on what we find online. In Central Europe, advertisers likely spend over €20 per person each month to sponsor links on your Google search.

“Financing our engagement for social change and climate action through advertising, which often promotes increased consumption and less sustainable products, does not make sense. We are the first cause-related search engine which resolves this contradiction”

Andreas Renner, Co-Founder of GOOD—the search engine for a better world.

Like many search engines, we have participated in the existing system until now. However, as an ethically grounded social enterprise, we increasingly critique the influence of advertising:

  • Distraction and Time Loss: Ads occupy valuable space on search results pages, diverting attention from what truly matters.
  • Lack of Ethical Guidance: Most advertisements promote consumption without differentiating between sustainable and less sustainable options.
  • Increased Corporate Power: Companies with large advertising budgets gain undue influence, leading to reduced diversity and greater market concentration.
  • Poor Carbon Footprint: Ads generate unnecessary data waste (such as ad trackers) and increase energy consumption and CO2 emissions.
  • Transparency Issues: Promises of data protection falter where sponsored links are involved. Financing a privacy-focused search engine with ads is an attempt to reconcile incompatible goals.

In contrast, ad-free searching with GOOD is beneficial in every way: good for you, good for society, and good for the environment.

Enhancing Digital Sovereignty

There’s another critical socio-political aspect supporting our departure from Google and Microsoft Bing. It undermines democratic opinion formation when two tech companies dictate what we find online and how search results are ranked. A functioning democracy requires diversity and competition.

Since the beginning of this year, we have gradually distanced ourselves from Big Tech and have been sourcing our search results via Brave since January 2024 while still utilizing Microsoft Bing for ads. Our search results are based on an independent index developed from scratch. We have created widgets, browser extensions, and mobile apps independently or in collaboration with partners, often using open-source principles. In the future, we plan to integrate additional independent search indices and develop new features to solidify our position as a sustainable, non-commercial search engine.

Subscription Model and New Alliances: Funding Our Commitment to a Better World

Our dedication to social change and climate protection remains part of our core mission. Instead of relying on advertising revenue, we offer a reasonably priced subscription model that allows unlimited ad-free searches. We will continue to communicate transparently about how we utilize our revenue. Even if we invest only a small portion of the subscription fee into our impact projects, it significantly exceeds what other social search engines achieve. We are unaware of any web search that generates more than 10 cents per user per month for supported projects; contracts with Google- and Microsoft-controlled advertising networks do not permit more.

At the same time, we are establishing a network of supporters through which socially responsible companies can donate directly to our GOOD projects. This has significant leverage: a donation of €1,000 can save advertising displayed on half a million pages—advertising that would otherwise be needed to generate sufficient clicks on paid ads.

Join Our Cause!

Our subscription is simple and straightforward: €2 for a monthly subscription or €1.60 per month with an annual commitment. You can choose whether you want to further support our commitment to social change and climate protection beyond the basic fee.

For organizations such as municipal administrations, schools, or companies managing multiple computers, we offer special B2B packages. Our message is clear: the time has come for organizations that should be neutral to stop financing their web searches through advertising. Now there’s GOOD—the sustainable search engine without ads

MORE ABOUT OUR MOVE

GOOD goes ad-free

Find out more about our move to free the GOOD web search from the influence of corporations and the advertising industry:

Questions, Critique, Ideas? Message us!
Andreas Renner, Co-Founder GOOD: andreas@good-search.org

The post Purpose over Profit: GOOD Goes 100% Ad-Free appeared first on GOOD – The search engine for a better world.

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Under the Paris Agreement, countries devise blueprints for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). Countries’ current commitments do not put the world on track to limit and avoid dangerous global warming but, at the same time, achieving the current goals in countries’ NDCs and NAPs is both difficult and complex. Supporting countries on their respective journeys—from more ambitious policy formulation and finance mobilization to investment promotion, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation—is foundational to achieving both country and global climate ambitions. 
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Increasing Climate Policy Ambition Through Foundational Target Setting  
CACCI responds in tailored ways to direct requests from countries. For example, supporting higher-emitting countries, such as South Africa, takes a whole-of-economy approach in setting new emissions targets. CACCI is aiding South Africa’s Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategy (LT-LEDS) submission to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The LT-LEDS provides a vision for achieving net-zero emissions by mid-century. It relies on evidence and modeling that informs the sectoral measures and investments for a whole-of-economy approach. 
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Mobilizing and Encouraging the Private Sector 
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Through the CACCI Partnership for Climate Action, private sector partners are articulating how their investments address climate change and support national climate agendas. For example, Genesis Energy is investing in renewable energy projects in Zambia to improve energy, health, and agriculture outcomes. Those projects include a hybrid solar and wind plant, solar electrification for healthcare facilities, and solar-powered cold chain storage to reduce post-harvest losses. 
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Despite the difficulty of meeting climate commitments, countries must take action to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. As countries put in place the building blocks of progress, it is important to act, not just plan. Taking action, however imperfect, is the best shot at bridging the gap between intention and results. CACCI will continue to meet countries where they are on their journeys, providing tailored support to implement current goals, increase policy ambitions, and enhance resilience to climate impacts.

Teaser Text
CACC was launched at COP26 with the goal of identifying promising mitigation and adaptation investment opportunities with private sector partners to help countries meet their climate commitments and strengthen their climate resilience.

Subtitle
Balancing the Need for Higher Ambition with Continued Progress Towards Countries’ Climate Change Commitments

Publish Date
Thu, 11/07/2024 – 12:00

Author(s)

Dr. Molly Hellmuth
John Heermans
Dr. Emily Weeks

Hero Image
Jeffreys Bay Wind Farm.jpg

Blog Type
Blog Post

Strategic Objective

Adaptation
Mitigation

Region

Global

Topic

Adaptation
Emissions
Low Emission Development
Climate
Climate Change Integration
Climate Finance
Climate Strategy
Climate Strategy Implementation
Mitigation
Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Partnership
Private Sector Engagement
Resilience

Country

Nigeria
South Africa
Zambia

Sectors

Climate

Projects

USAID Comprehensive Action for Climate Change Initiative (CACCI)

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