January 13, 2009 by Matt Thomas
Remember yesterday when we reported that a Times article had accused Google searches of wasting energy? Well, it appears to have landed the Times in a spot of trouble not, as you might expect, with Google, but with the scientist behind the original study, professor Alex Wissner-Gross.
Wissner Gross’s issue with the article is this. His study was on the internet in general, not specifically Google, in fact he never even mentions the search engine in his study.
So how did Google end up being the focus of the Times article? Wissner Gross has a theory, “For some reason, in their story on the study, The Times had an ax to grind with Google… Our work has nothing to do with Google.”
So what about the headline grabbing statistic that the Times made so much hay out of, that 2 web searches is equivalent to boiling a kettle, that’s true, right? Nope – “I have no idea where they got those statistics,” – Wissner-Gross.
It appears that the Times have decided to dress up a dry but important report about the environmental effects of internet use as some kind of frontal assault on Google. I’m not sure what they have against them but we’re staying well out of it. Sorry professor.
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