iBlackle to Fight Solastalgia

An article from Wired's January 2008 Issue by Clive Thompson mentions a new kind of depression - Solastalgia - the sadness caused by environmental change. Australia is suffering the most of it, the article writes. And it strikes me that Blackle, the original inspiration of iBlackle, hails from the land of Down Under. Even moreso that the man who coined the word solastalgia is an Australian.
As iBlackle's lone developer, I am neither Australian, nor am I Solastalgic, but I would like to make it clear that I feel the pain too. That's why I started iBlackle on a humorous vent 2 months ago.
Although iBlackle, as a parody - seems to be making fun of ecological websites, it maintains that the damage to our planet is no laughing matter.
In fact it stuck to my mind that John Doerr (the venture capitalist who inspired the developers of CO2Stats.com) literally cried at the end of his talk about the environmental crisis. Dude, he could be Solastalgic! Well, he cried out of passion, wherein I would have peed my pants out of nervousness when giving speeches.
The saddening environmental issues of our Planet is real and it is no joke. And that is why iBlackle is here: To counter the pain and misery caused by environmental damage, via the use of comedy and humor to at least quell the sadness, to educate the masses in ecological issues, and raise public awareness on environmental matters.
Do Not Be Sad: iBlackle is Here to Save the Planet and Fight Solastalgia!

CO2 Emissions Offset ( How to make up for farting too much )

Apparently, I farted a lot during the development of iBlackle, so I'd like to make up for the harm I did by installing the CO2 Emissions Offset on this blog & iBlackle pages. See the green widget below. Hopefully CO2Stats.com will really cancel out all the 'green pea gas' i made. And they better live up to their promise or else I might pass gas some more! It must've been the Green Pea Soup or the Lentil Soup that caused such toxic fumes in my bowels to emanate.
Lentil and Green Pea..."green" as it may seem, is not Ecofriendly. It contributes to Global Warming by causing too much fart, or CO2 emissions.
Imagine how HOT it would be if every person around the world ate Green Pea soup and Lentils simultaneously and then farted all at the same time - it would be global rotten hell!

Learn More Green Tips via iBlackle Naturally

I have been adding more and more green tips (70 of them so far) as I learn and compile them that I come across. Of course I try to shorten them as much as I can, or make them sound funny. Some are even original ones that I just thought of myself (such as the example above). But what's even funnier is that I have been finding myself practicing these tips from out of the blue, instinctively, effortlessly, and naturally.
I guess these green tips showing up just a little bit above the iBlackle search box (or below the logo) gets read via peripheral vision and somehow induces a subliminal learning effect on the mind. Whoa!
Case in point: Use iBlackle more and you'll learn to be ecofriendlier naturally!

Wasteful Thinking

iBlackle is a parody. I have started it with that in mind, but I realized it doesn't really 'act' like one. So today, I have decided to make a small change:
I have changed the "n Watt-hours saved" into "n Watt-hours Wasted". The counter mechanism is untouched, and honest as from the day i activated it last Nov 15, 2007. Only the suffix was changed from "saved" to "wasted".
The point of this parody is that by being aware of how much energy we actually waste on senseless searching, we can then take measures to minimize our energy-wasting activities (such as using this parody search engine!).
Right now, you are wasting your energy reading this st*pid post, so get back to useful work!

iBlackle Theme for iGoogle now Live!

The long-awaited iBlackle Theme is now live! It's also an iGoogle skin to call it the other way around. The iGoogle interface has been 'monkeyed' with, using the GreaseMonkey Firefox Add-on. This release only works for Mozilla Firefox. And requires that the GreaseMonkey Add-On be installed in your Firefox browser first. Then the GreaseMonkey script should be installed next. It works seamlessly with your iGoogle custom page, but you must set 'Classic' as your theme! Don't select no crazy 'Solar System' themes just yet! I'm still working on it. For now, just enjoy the sleek iBlackle theme or skin for your iGoogle!

iBlackle as Mashup of the Day in ProgrammableWeb!

iBlackle has just been selected as Mashup of the Day!!! It is truly fun for a parody mashup site to be listed in ProgrammableWeb - a site that focuses on the web's programmability or mashability (via APIs,SDKs,AJAX,etc). This really makes my day....its so funny! Now, all I need is some ecofriendly beer to celebrate!

Google AJAX Search API for iBlackle

In my continuing quest to bring you the most ecofriendly way to perform your search, I am now working out a way to implement the Google AJAX Search API for iBlackle. Pretty soon, you will be able to do Web Search, Local Search, Video Search, Blog Search, News Search, Book Search, and Image Search directly from iBlackle.com! On the internet, it seems that AJAX will clean the planet!

Ecofriendly Tips delivered via AJAX!

It wastes a lot of energy when webpages refresh. So iBlackle provided a neat little AJAX way for you to get short pieces of green tips via iBlackle. Simply hover your mouse over the lightbulb, (soon to be replaced by ecofriendly coiled flourescents :) and watch the magic unfold. Its short and sweet. These one-sentence green tips are my own compilation of ways to save the planet. I learned them from many many sources and shortened them to a few bite-sized words to minimize transit time of AJAX data transfer. A lot of them are from my own personal list to save energy.
Feel free to suggest short, one-sentence tips via this feedback/suggestion form.

Hard@Work: iGoogle Authentication

I am now checking out Google's Authentication for Web Applications. I am working out a way for you, o energy-conscious beings - to be able to use iGoogle's functionalities via iBlackle's sleek interface. My goal is to avoid maintaining my own set of database for all your crazy username/passwords. Heck, I cant even remember my own password so why should I remember yours?! The key is to save time and energy in using iGoogle's services. And it all starts with the click! Pretty soon, not only will you save energy while using the iBlackle.com search page, you will also save time and energy using iBlackle.com's integration with iGoogle! So if anyone of you Web Developers out there that had experience with Google's Authentication for Web Apps, please let me know your experiences with it, and if possible send me a link to a working example.

Kilowatt-hour Counter Started

To perpetuate Blackle's tradition of the legendary 'Kilowatt-hours saved' counter, I have now started iBlackle.com's very own kilowatt-hour counter! This marks the date and we will see how much energy iBlackle saves.

Green WebHosting

I am now scouting for ecofriendly webhosting services to host iBlackle. It only makes sense that Your Energy-Efficient Search Engine be hosted on an environment-friendly webhosting service, right? So if anyone can give me a good suggestion as to the best Green Hosting out there, I would appreciate it.
Also, if anyone wants to sponsor iBlackle for hosting - that would even be better!

Thank You!!!

Thank you very much for the overwhelming response to iBlackle! A lot of people wanted the feature of iGoogle to be implemented for iBlackle. So I am making an extra effort to build that interface. This blog will be your window to the ongoing development of that task.
For starters, I have put a small lightbulb in the iBlackle logo to signify 'idea' and 'energy' : both powerful forces in the universe!
Also I have optimized the page a little bit for faster loading times, and I've spoken with my hosting services regarding the intermittent downtimes of the site. Hopefully you will see more improvements in both performance and interface as time goes by.
Again, I wish to thank everyone for your enthusiasm and your concern for our environment. Viva Planet Earth!