In this blog post, I take a look at Greenpeace's Clicking Clean report and compare it with the Top 100 websites. When I read the Clicking Clean report, I could not help but notice "something is missing" which prompted me to look a little further.
When I co-invented the Digital Service Efficiency Metric, one of my personal drivers was to understand the positive and negative impacts of using electricity to create Internet services. Clicking Clean reminds me of this curiosity and gives us all some data to question and understand.
Greenpeace does an excellent job in the Clicking Clean annual report highlighting the progress of energy sourcing for data centers in addition to pointing out growing energy demands and the need for non-polluting energy sources.
Some of the best questions lead to more questions, and like a ball of unraveling yarn, I started thinking about websites, and impacts that might be missing from the Clicking Clean report.
The first site I thought of was Wikipedia, wouldn't it be a top site? Is the focus on Korea as impactful vs. a focus on U.S. (or another country) based Internet sites? Where are the Financial/FinTech companies? Shouldn't all categories of streaming video sites be considered for environmental impacts? Where do the Tier 1 network providers fit in?
Here are some of the first insights I found. By using a static version of Alexa's top 500 Internet sites from Wikipedia, I took the top 100 internet sites to see how they compared to Clicking Clean.
Greatly simplifying the categorization of the types of sites shows us that Search is one of the most used Internet services with Social sites being the next popular. We also see the categorization of additional types of sites such as News sites showing up.
Going through the listing of specific domains we see who didn't make the Clicking Clean report and their relative popularity on the Internet. Wikipedia shows up in the top 5, is it clean? This comparison shows that 45 of the top 100 sites are not in the Clicking Clean report.
| Site | Domain | Listed in Click Clean | Alexa top 100 websites (As of December 28, 2016) |
Principal country | Type | Simplified Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| google.com | Yes | 1 | U.S. | Internet services and products | Search | |
| YouTube | youtube.com | Yes | 2 | U.S. | Video sharing | Video/Entertainment |
| facebook.com | Yes | 3 | U.S. | Social network | Social | |
| Baidu | baidu.com | Yes | 4 | China | Search engine | Search |
| Wikipedia | wikipedia.org | No | 5 | U.S. | Encyclopedia | Wikis/Question |
| Yahoo! | yahoo.com | Yes | 6 | U.S. | Portal and media | Portal |
| Google India | google.co.in | Yes (Google) | 7 | India | Search engine | Search |
| Amazon | amazon.com | Yes | 8 | U.S. | E-commerce and cloud computing | E-commerce |
| Tencent QQ | qq.com | Yes | 9 | China | Portal | Portal |
| Google Japan | google.co.jp | Yes (Google) | 10 | Japan | Search engine | Search |
| Windows Live | live.com | Yes (Microsoft) | 11 | U.S. | Software plus services | Software |
| Taobao | taobao.com | No | 12 | China | Online shopping | E-commerce |
| VK | vk.com | No | 13 | Russia | Social network | Social |
| twitter.com | Yes | 14 | U.S. | Social network | Social | |
| instagram.com | Yes | 15 | U.S. | Photo sharing and social media | Social | |
| Hao123 | hao123.com | No | 16 | China | Web directories | Portal |
| Sohu | sohu.com | No | 17 | China | Portal | Portal |
| Sina Corp | sina.com.cn | No | 18 | China | Portal and instant messaging | Portal |
| reddit.com | Yes | 19 | U.S. | Social news and entertainment | Social | |
| Google Germany | google.de | Yes (Google) | 20 | Germany | Search engine | Search |
| linkedin.com | Yes | 21 | U.S. | Professional Social network | Social | |
| Tmall | tmall.com | No | 22 | China | Online shopping | E-commerce |
| Yahoo! Japan | yahoo.co.jp | Yes (Yahoo) | 23 | Japan | Portal | Portal |
| Sina Weibo | weibo.com | No | 24 | China | Social network | Social |
| Google France | google.fr | Yes (Google) | 25 | France | Search engine | Search |
| 360 Safeguard | 360.cn | No | 26 | China | Internet security software | Software |
| Google UK | google.co.uk | Yes (Google) | 27 | UK | Search engine | Search |
| Google Russia | google.ru | Yes (Google) | 28 | Russia | Search engine | Search |
| Google Brazil | google.com.br | Yes (Google) | 29 | Brazil | Search engine | Search |
| Yandex | yandex.ru | No | 30 | Russia | Search engine | Search |
| eBay | ebay.com | Yes | 31 | U.S. | Online auctions and shopping | E-commerce |
| Bing | bing.com | Yes (Microsoft) | 32 | U.S. | Search engine | Search |
| MSN | msn.com | Yes (Microsoft) | 33 | U.S. | Portal | Portal |
| Google Italy | google.it | Yes (Google) | 34 | Italy | Search engine | Search |
| Soso.com | soso.com | No | 35 | China | Search engine | Search |
| t.co | t.co | No | 36 | U.S. | URL shortening for links on Twitter | URL Shortening |
| WordPress.com | wordpress.com | Yes | 37 | U.S. | Blogging and social media | Blogging |
| Google Spain | google.es | Yes (Google) | 38 | Spain | Search engine | Search |
| Microsoft | microsoft.com | Yes | 39 | U.S. | Software and technology | Tech/Software |
| Tumblr | tumblr.com | Yes | 40 | U.S. | Social media | Social |
| AliExpress | aliexpress.com | No | 41 | China | Online shopping | E-commerce |
| Blogspot | blogspot.com | No | 42 | U.S. | Blogging | Blogging |
| Netflix | netflix.com | Yes | 43 | U.S. | Streaming TV and movies | Video/Entertainment |
| Amazon Japan | amazon.co.jp | Yes (Amazon) | 44 | Japan | E-commerce | E-commerce |
| Odnoklassniki | ok.ru | No | 45 | Russia | Social Networking | Social |
| Google Hong Kong | google.com.hk | Yes (Google) | 46 | Hong Kong | Search engine | Search |
| Stack Overflow | stackoverflow.com | No | 47 | U.S. | Question and answer site | Wikis/Question |
| Google Canada | google.ca | Yes (Google) | 48 | Canada | Search engine | Search |
| Google Mexico | google.com.mx | Yes (Google) | 49 | Mexico | Search engine | Search |
| Imgur | imgur.com | No | 50 | U.S. | Image sharing | Social |
| Pornhub | pornhub.com | No | 51 | Canada | Pornography | Pornography |
| Apple Inc. | apple.com | Yes | 52 | U.S. | Technology and software | Tech/Software |
| Naver | Naver.com | Yes | 53 | Korea | Portal | Portal |
| Mail.ru | mail.ru | No | 54 | Russia | Portal | Portal |
| IMDb | imdb.com | No | 55 | U.S. | Film | Video/Entertainment |
| PopAds | popads.net | No | 56 | Costa Rica | Pop-up advertising | Advertising |
| Onclickads | onclickads.net | No | 57 | U.S. | Online advertising network | Advertising |
| Microsoft Office | office.com | Yes (Microsoft) | 58 | U.S. | Online office suite | Advertising |
| Google Korea | google.co.kr | Yes (Google) | 59 | Korea | Search Engine | Search |
| GitHub | github.com | No | 60 | U.S. | Source code hosting service | Software |
| pinterest.com | Yes | 61 | U.S. | Social media | Social | |
| PayPal | paypal.com | No | 62 | U.S. | Payment system | Payment |
| Tianya Club | tianya.cn | No | 63 | China | Internet forum | Social |
| Google Taiwan | google.com.tw | Yes (Google) | 64 | Taiwan | Search engine | Search |
| Google Turkey | google.com.tr | Yes (Google) | 65 | Turkey | Search engine | Search |
| Google Australia | google.com.au | Yes (Google) | 66 | Australia | Search Engine | Search |
| Diply | diply.com | No | 67 | Canada | Entertainment | Social |
| Amazon Germany | amazon.de | Yes (Amazon) | 68 | Germany | E-commerce | E-commerce |
| Google Indonesia | google.co.id | Yes (Google) | 69 | Indonesia | Search engine | Search |
| Microsoft Online Services | microsoftonline.com | Yes (Microsoft) | 70 | U.S. | Software as a service | Software |
| Onclckds | onclckds.com | No | 71 | U.S. | Online advertising network | Advertising |
| Twitch | twitch.tv | No | 72 | U.S. | Livestreams | Video/Entertainment |
| Adobe Systems | adobe.com | Yes | 73 | U.S. | Software | Software |
| TXXX | txxx.com | No | 74 | U.S. | Pornography | Pornography |
| Amazon UK | amazon.co.uk | Yes (Amazon) | 75 | UK | E-commerce | E-commerce |
| Wikia | wikia.com | No | 76 | U.S. | Wikis | Wikis/Question |
| CNZZ | cnzz.com | No | 77 | China | Web traffic statistics | Web Statistics |
| Cáťc Cáťc | coccoc.com | No | 78 | Vietnam | Search engine and web browser | Search |
| 360 Search | so.com | No | 79 | China | Search engine | Search |
| xHamster | xhamster.com | No | 80 | U.S. | Pornography | Pornography |
| FC2 Portal | fc2.com | No | 81 | Japan | Portal | Portal |
| Pixnet | pixnet.net | No | 82 | Taiwan | Social network | Social |
| Dropbox | dropbox.com | No | 83 | U.S. | File hosting service | File Hosting |
| Google Poland | google.pl | Yes (Google) | 84 | Poland | Search engine | Search |
| AdFly | adf.ly | No | 85 | Mexico | URL shortening and Online advertising | URL Shortening |
| Zhihu | zhihu.com | No | 86 | China | Question and answer site | Wikis/Question |
| whatsapp.com | Yes | 87 | U.S. | Instant messaging | Social | |
| Google file storage | googleusercontent.com | Yes (Google) | 88 | U.S. | File hosting service | File Hosting |
| Alibaba Group | alibaba.com | Yes | 89 | China | E-commerce and Portal | E-commerce |
| Bonga Cams | bongacams.com | No | 90 | U.S. | Pornography | Pornography |
| Ask.com | ask.com | No | 91 | U.S. | Search Engine | Search |
| Google Egypt | google.com.eg | Yes (Google) | 93 | Egypt | Search engine | Search |
| Google Saudi Arabia | google.com.sa | Yes (Google) | 94 | Saudi Arabia | Search engine | Search |
| Google Thailand | google.co.th | Yes (Google) | 95 | Thailand | Search engine | Search |
| BBC Online | bbc.com | No | 96 | UK | Global News | News |
| China Youth League | youth.cn | No | 97 | China | News | News |
| SaveFrom.net | savefrom.net | No | 98 | India | Download manager | Download |
| Amazon India | amazon.in | Yes (Amazon) | 99 | India | E-commerce | E-commerce |
| Guangming Daily | gmw.cn | No | 100 | China | Newspaper | News |
Looking at the countries of the top 100 websites, the U.S. dominates vs. other countries with 41 out of 100 sites hosted in the US with China as the next most popular country. We also get to see that Google's "A" grade energy commitments impact many countries - go Google!
| Country | # of Top Sites |
|---|---|
| Argentina | 1 |
| Australia | 1 |
| Brazil | 1 |
| Canada | 3 |
| China | 18 |
| Costa Rica | 1 |
| Egypt | 1 |
| France | 1 |
| Germany | 2 |
| Hong Kong | 1 |
| India | 3 |
| Indonesia | 1 |
| Italy | 1 |
| Japan | 4 |
| Korea | 2 |
| Mexico | 2 |
| Poland | 1 |
| Russia | 5 |
| Saudi Arabia | 1 |
| Spain | 1 |
| Taiwan | 2 |
| Thailand | 1 |
| Turkey | 1 |
| U.S. | 41 |
| UK | 3 |
| Vietnam | 1 |
Self-reporting, especially for popular Internet services, sets the example through leadership. The companies that are self-reporting through Clicking Clean, the Carbon Disclosure Project, their websites, and other means should all be held in high regard.
While I have not been able to answer all my questions just yet, I can say that the Clicking Clean report was the catalyst to ponder the Internet and formulate the questions above. Simply asking the right questions of our Internet usage, and energy sourcing will give us a chance to have an Internet that has the most beneficial impact on society from sourcing to delivery of services.
Resources:
- "List Of Most Popular Websites". 2017. En.Wikipedia.Org. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_popular_websites
- "Alexa Top 500 Global Sites". 2017. Alexa.Com. http://www.alexa.com/topsites
- "Clickclean". 2017. Click Clean. http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/global-warming/click-clean/
- "List Of Largest Internet Companies". 2017. En.Wikipedia.Org. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_Internet_companies
- Miller, Rich. 2017. "Greenpeace: The Cloud Is Getting Greener, But Work Remains". Data Center Frontier. Accessed January 24 2017. http://datacenterfrontier.com/greenpeace-the-cloud-is-getting-greener-but-work-remains/
- Verge, Jason. 2013. "Ebay's DSE: One Dashboard To Rule Them All? | Data Center Knowledge". Data Center Knowledge. http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2013/03/06/is-ebays-digital-service-efficiency-methodology-the-one-metric-to-rule-them-all/
- Sverdlik, Yevgeniy. 2017. "Here Are The 10 Largest Data Center Providers In The World | Data Center Knowledge". Data Center Knowledge. http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2017/01/20/here-are-the-10-largest-data-center-providers-in-the-world/
- Sverdlik, Yevgeniy. 2017. "Who Leased The Most Data Center Space In 2016? | Data Center Knowledge". Data Center Knowledge. http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2017/01/18/who-leased-the-most-data-center-space-in-2016/