Thursday, September 8, 2011

Google Details Electricity Usage of Its Data Centers - NYTimes.com

Google Details Electricity Usage of Its Data Centers - NYTimes.com: "Though the electricity figure may seem large, the company asserts that the world is using less energy as a result of the billions of operations carried out in Google data centers. Google says people should consider things like the amount of gasoline saved when someone conducts a Google search rather than, say, driving to the library. “They look big in the small context,” Urs Hoelzle, Google’s senior vice president of technical infrastructure, said in an interview."

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1 comment:

Ryan said...

I think this is an interesting micro-econ problem. On the one hand, He's right, that Google is more efficient was to accomplish certain tasks. Like doing a Google search is easier and more efficient than taking a trip to the library.

But, the other thing Google has done is reduce the price of doing certain activities. With by lowering the price, we tend to do a lot more of them.

So whether Google is a net energy saver is an open question.