Ecosia - The search engine that plants trees

Works well but why on gods given earth would a browser dedicated to helping the environment use AI?? What the actual heck? Yes, there is a toggle to switch it off, but it should not be there to begin with. AI has detrimental effects on the environment and using it for this browser is just plain stupid. I get it, it's easier, but god forbid you have to click on a respectable link to get the answer you were looking for instead of being misinformed by AI. It's so, so terrible and using it for something like this, even if it is optional, is just hypocritical. I will be undownloading this stupid browser, as all the damage done by AI and supporting it will reverse everything ecosia does to help the environment.

I really loved the restoration projects Ecosia sponsored and showed on YouTube, and I installed the extension out of support - but the search quality is very bad: AI auto-generated blog sites are constantly ranked on top, filled with misinformation. The reliable and trustworthy sources are nowhere to be found. FWIW, I searched for common house plant disease treatment, which should be uncontroversial. Comparing the result from Ecosia with results from Google, it is not only unhelpful but also often misguided. I think filtering out bot-run-blogs is the baseline for any search engine today in fighting against misinformation. Unfortunately, Ecosia can't deliver. This is the second time installed and then uninstalled Ecosia.

All around a good search engine, except for the inclusion of generative AI. They don't seem to be transparent enough on their use of it, as I had to find out that they used AI through one of their surveys. AI is one of the most damaging things to the environment currently, it is burning through recourses as you're reading this. I couldn't be more disappointed in ecosia, as it goes against being an informative search engine as well as it's "eco friendly alternative" front. Having a "slightly better" AI is still actively participating in damaging the environment. I can't wholeheartedly recommend using this until the AI chat function is removed.

Ive been using it for a while but i was trying to get it to not be on all my accounts, since i only have it on one account, and i couldnt figure out how. Although, i saw that it automaticly has acces to protected content ids, payment handelers, and sign in information. Very very suspicious if you ask me. this is wrong, very wrong.

seems there is a may 23rd glitch! using google and hoping this gets fixed

Has started saying "There was a problem loading search results for “[my search]”" every single time I search from the address bar

its a great concept and cause, but when i installed it on my phone, i had to uninstall it right away because of the relentless and insufferable cookies pop-ups that never goes away. and then i installed the extension to test it out on my PC browser and encountered the same problem. no thank you

It didn't install a new tab page.

bad

bad

I'd love this a lot more if the landing page didn't have a constantly moving number driving me INSANE. Some of us can't stand modern motion garbage. Please fix it. I'd love to love your service and help plant lots of trees. UPDATE: This addon replaced my Homepage and New Tab with Ecosia's stupid tree-counter graphic that drives me insane. And every attempt I've made to disable it leaves me with Chrome's default New Tab view. So, I officially hate this addon. THANKS FOR RUINING CHROME!

I installed for the sole purpose of saying this: Don't show me annoying banners at the bottom of the screen asking me to install this extension when I have already set it as my default search engine within chrome.

It took out all of my bookmarks and removed me from all of my signed in google accounts. Please do yourself a favor and do not install this application.

VIRUS ALERT. This search engine hi-jacked my web browser and installed itself without my permission and it won't let me change it from being the default or uninstall it.

Giving one star to just to inform the developer that opening a new tab is taking over other extensions such as Earth view or others. Please include an option to disable when opening the new tab integration with ecosia.

While it works like google, the quality in comparison to google is significantly worse. I experienced more unnecessary lag when using this extension than without. This may not be important to a lot of people, but if you are a person who constantly researches for assignments, projects, work, etc. this extension is not great. I also recently discovered that it makes YouTube lag for me, in the sense that comments may not even load, or take an excessive amount of time to load, which is strange considering it is not meant to be connected to YouTube, and it makes me question what sort of data do they obtain from comments I leave, or comments I like/dislike. There were times where I would search for images of certain things and it would not show anything, or it would take an excessive amount of time to load the images. I can understand the browser lagging then, but since it is already not showing all possible results for searches, I can't help but wonder why it would lag to show about 30 pictures, when google images itself can shoot out 100 in a few seconds. If you are an environmentalist who wants to do your part in helping the world, this is certainly not the way to do it, you risk having a lot of your private information exposed for the sake of 45 separate searches equating to one tree being put in the ground. Donate money to reliable charities, because I can assure you that that's a very sure way of actually helping the environment.

i like bushes more trees look gay

It just slaps its stupid logo onto your new tab and search screens, also the the guy with the massive lisp in the adds is annoying. i would give it a 0/10. idk how they even make money tbh. also the tree counter is a total scam.

The extension itself was okay, but I've spent hours digging through websites on how to remove it?

Really annoying and inadequate search results. Lacks basic google built-in functionality like calculator and translator.

Not effective and I can't find a way to disable it

New update has taken over my new tabs page. Won't be using it again until this feature is removed

It just takes over all my new tabs. And the search results are awful ... how to uninstall? Google will help!

It's not effective and it wont let me disable

I love using Ecosia but it is very inconvenient that the setting for Ecosia's new tab cannot be disabled. Very disappointed as I use 'Tab for a Cause' and whenever a new tab is opened it takes ages to redirect. Unfortunately this means disabling Ecosia.

Great idea, but why on earth does it have an AI chat bot feature? Absolutely mind numbing that an ECO friendly search enginge would even think of this, let alone implement it. For this reason I'm removing Ecosia, and will never be using them again. This is downright R E T A R D E D of whomever opted for this to be included.

The search engine itself is perfectly fine. But why on earth would they add an AI feature to a search engine meant for those of us who want better for the environment? You can toggle the features off but it's still baffling that they would even add them in the first place. Now I'm not so sure if they'll be using the funds for environmental aid or to fund their AI BS. It's completely hypocritical and unnecessary. I use the engine to get away from AI overviews and chats. Get. Rid. Of. The. AI. Features.

Good, but AI feature shouldn't exist because it harms the planet. Bad search engine since removes relevant searches + keeps popping up unrelevant things... Okay as in its gimmick but terrible for practicality and artist's morality

when I open a new tab there is a bright white flash of light for one second. it's annoying when using dark theme

revert back please

Switch back to google search

I initially had this installed as a friend from school told me about this, but as I grew older, I'm more dubious about this search engine and the extension itself. For one, it seems as though Ecosia touts itself as a charity organisation that helps to plant trees, but one issue I see is that all these trees are being "planted" but where, and how is the better question. With so many trees being planted, you'd think by now that Ecosia would be well reputable, but you have to be told they exist before you are aware of it. Strikes me odd because that's a lot of trees that I'm sure TeamTrees would be jealous. The next question is where they get the money to buy and then plant a tree for each search result. It might seem obvious to say it's the ads, but it is worth noting that Ecosia's search engine is not unique; it runs on the Bing search engine. That means they have to be getting money elsewhere to not only buy trees, but keep their company afloat. This leads onto the dubious and vague nature of privacy. Though they say they will not distribute it, words mean nothing when presented with the prospect of money. In this day and age, "selling data" is a given and not an exception, and there's never really a website that won't store or distribute data. Many free services stay afloat because of analytics; it's a fancy term for "we talked with our stakeholders and gave them your info". Lastly, I should warn that this extension has been marked by several antivirus services as a Potentially Unwanted Program, meaning that this extension might not be safe. Just like how The Great Suspender was safe until it was found out that it was malicious, Ecosia Search Engine extension may as well be another case of malware disguised as an extension. No other extension I have installed ever been flagged, so it seems quite suspicious that this is a PUP. Long short: this extension is marketing material to get you to use a suspicious search engine.

I'm a little miffed that all my shortcut buttons that were on my home page have disappeared and there is no clear way to add any on the Ecosia home page. Let me rephrase that, there are three buttons that have been placed but none of which I use frequently and they can't be edited. Like I said... miffed...

It's a great idea, but this caused a virus on my computer.

The browers keeps crashing but the idea is good.

meh its alright. i downloaded it and its a good search engine and all, but i dont see trees coming out of my computer yet. im still waitin tho might improve rating later.

I wish this app was more customizable. It clashes with the app "Tab for a change." Since Ecosia completely takes over the page of your new tabs, it disables my "Tab for a change" page where I have places some esay-to-get-to links. Pretty disappointed as I would use it otherwise

i like the part about planting trees and all that but the browser its self is ugly, there is little to no customizable options, i dont know why the devs of this extension cant just make it look like normal chrome, normal chrome is what im used to and sticking with, please just make the extension have all the tree planting stuff without the ugly browser stuff and just revert the design back to vanilla chrome. Ill use this extension when it doesn't mess up the gui im used to

why do you have to change my new tab ?

Annoyingly takes over the new tab making it unusable. Other than that it's a little slower but everything works fine

I'd prefer more options on the new extension, as I use both Ecosia and Google for my searches. I've disabled the new extension but kept the older 'legacy' Ecosia search option.

I've been using Ecosia (and advertising to my friends and colleagues) for months but now I will have to disable it because it arbitrarily changes my "new tab" theme! I really like your cause, planting trees, and I *really* want to contribute but you just made it difficult for me. I know Google is giving you a hard time with the old extension, but now you're jeopardizing your own cause by giving a hard time to your users...

With the legacy extension before version 2.0 I used to be able to have the "New tab" in Google Chrome open with the Bing Homepage (which I find more useful than Ecosia) but still have the omnibox use Ecosia. I cannot decouple the behaviour now, so will disable Ecosia :(

its really great but i would love if they added a feature to disable the AI chat :(

I learnt and installed ECOSIA about 4 years ago. I wish it would keep up with UX best practices, to make it the most loved and used search engine on the planet, as it needs this to take over the world and plant many more trees.

MAKE THE HEADLINES OF A SEARCH BOLD! It is really tiring and strenuous to look through search pages where all the text is similar and nothing stands out. Please! Because I really want to use this, great idea

i cant add the little bookmark links to my home page...i also cant click the google square thing to get to my email and drive...just inconvenient tbh

I'm quite enthusiastic about the concept of a search engine that supports tree planting efforts. However, I've noticed some concerning elements while reviewing your privacy practices. The mention of network monitoring, click tracking, mouse positions, scrolling behavior, and particularly keylogging records raises some questions for me. Could you kindly shed light on why these practices are in place? For now I stay away from the extension.

Counter for tree planted was reset a while ago, and recently stopped at 10 for a prolonged period even though I used it every day.

Maybe let's let people chose their own background. I love Ecosia just in the future let us make our own background. I don;t care about light or dark I just want my own tab background back. You do that and I'll come running back + many people!