Do you ever get the feeling that the world is really running in reverse. Talk of petrol rationing, strikes, negative equity, Rick Astly back in the charts, drain pipe jeans (I still haven’t recovered from the return of flares and corduroy jackets), all lead me to believe that whilst we think we are progressing we are actually quietly and steadily moving backwards. This was further brought home to me today when I learnt about Blackle.

Blackle is a search engine like Google but sports a black screen and consequently uses only 59 Watts of power. Google with its white screen lighting up your face uses 79 Watts of power. If you are concerned about the environment, saving 20Watts of power when you search the internet is (I am sure) a worthy thing to do; along with offsetting your carbon footprint and riding your bike to work.

But com’on, this is marketing at its best. The creators of Blackle are building their brands and they have tapped into the growing concern about power consumption. You have to admire their Australian audacity. However, it does beg the question: how much additional power does it take to use a search engine based in Australia when your data is going through all those additional switches and routers and bouncing off satellites. I don’t know the answer to this one but I like to beg questions occasionally.

I am, however, old enough and ugly enough to remember the days when computers could ONLY display black screens with green writing. I wonder if one day soon we will wake up and realise that all these pretty windows on our screen are just a waste of energy and going back to black screens with green text would be just fine after all.

I say bring back hot pants, Led Zepplin  and Bruce Forsyth. Oh, sorry we already have.