Unfortunately, there are no Canadian owned and operated search engines (they were all acquired by Americans! Yes really). The next best alternative is Ecosia, which is the only major search engine that actually invests to Canadians’ benefit. Ecosia partners with Tree Canada to regenerate Canadian forests.

In Canada, Ecosia’s reforestation project is located within the Acadian Forest and focuses on restoring its historic diversity in areas that have been degraded by centuries of intensive land use.

Video playlist: How Ecosia works.

Ecosia is also B Corp Certified. This means they have changed their by-laws to be mission locked, and are required to consider stakeholders’ interests such as employees, customers, and the environment.

Ecosia is a not-for-profit tech company that plants and protects trees. By dedicating 100% of its profits to the planet, Ecosia has planted over 214,229,374 million trees since its founding in December 2009. In addition to trees, Ecosia invests in environmental and social initiatives like regenerative agriculture, renewable energy and community-driven climate projects.

Getting Started

Manual configuration (advanced)

Using Mozilla Firefox:

  • Search string URL: https://www.ecosia.org/search?addon=Firefox&q=%s
  • Search suggestion API: https://ac.ecosia.org/autocomplete?type=list&q=%s
  • AlolanVulpixOPEnglish
    2·
    11 hours ago

    See the video playlist: How Ecosia works.

    For myself, I think the community benefit is more important than the “cost” of seeing ads. Perhaps in the future, as Ecosia grows, they’ll be able to offer paid ad free plans.

    • setVeryLoud(true);
      2·
      11 hours ago

      As someone with ADHD, an ad-blocker is not a want, it’s a need, so I’d be using Ecosia with an ad-blocker, which defeats the purpose.

      • AlolanVulpixOPEnglish
        1·
        45 minutes ago

        I have to say, I don’t really agree with the assertion that having ADHD indicates a need for ad-blocking. What happens if you see a couple of ads or distractions?

        Even if ads are blocked, when you click on a link a search engine has provided, would you not realize if what you were looking for was there?

        I suppose in theory, even if ads are blocked, there would still be some beneficial metrics that Ecosia could gather.

        In any case, you are free to use whatever search engine you choose, without justification to anybody else. I do choose to keep the ads, because I feel the cause is more important than the “cost” incurred upon me.

        • setVeryLoud(true);
          1·
          2 minutes ago

          It’s a visual distraction that makes it harder to parse a page rather than about accidentally clicking on it. Regarding clicks, advertising has often been used to carry malware and is a security risk.

          I have pretty severe ADHD, and I do best on straightforward content. Turns out, most sites are rather straightforward after you strip out the advertising. It’s a question of cognitive complexity.

          From your response, I can tell you don’t have ADHD nor understand the cognitive difficulty that comes with being offered things I do not need all the time or having to find the real content like a needle in a haystack when I have the attention span of a fruit fly.

          On top of that, I’m of the philosophy that my eyes and data are not aspects of me that are for sale, as those are not things that I can easily control. I would much rather just directly pay for what I use.

          Bref, I don’t think Ecosia’s business model is accessible, nor does it sit well with me philosophically. Just let me pay for those trees in exchange for a service, take my money, I have money!