You don’t need to reinvent the internet to make it better.
Sometimes, all it takes is one parameter.
Greener-GO is a tiny, privacy-friendly launcher for Google Search that does one simple thing:
it tells Google to skip the AI “Overview” junk and show you the Web results directly.
That’s it. No cookies, no tracking, no sign-ups, no weird extensions. Just the web — fast, light, and human.
Why we built it
Because “AI everything” isn’t actually better — or particularly green.
- AI overviews burn energy that traditional search didn’t need. Every summary, rewrite, and hallucinated answer costs compute and electricity.
- AI overviews steal traffic from the independent writers, journalists, and creators who actually built the open web.
- AI overviews dull our own minds. When every query is spoon-fed, our curiosity muscles atrophy.
- And most of all, people didn’t ask for it. By using a tool like Greener-GO, you’re sending a tiny but measurable signal to Google that not everyone wants AI forced on them.
How to use Greener-GO
If you’re like me, you use the search bar on your phone constantly — and lately, you’ve noticed that every search now comes with a “helpful” AI summary you didn’t request.
Here’s how to change that:
In Chrome or any Chromium-based browser
- Go to Settings → Search Engine → Manage Search Engines
- Click Add
- Name it “Greener-GO”
- Use this as the search URL:
https://sustainablehosting.com/index.html?q=%s - Set it as your default (or trigger keyword) — done!
In Firefox (desktop or mobile)
- Go to Settings → Search → Add Search Engine
- Name it “Greener-GO”
- Paste the same URL:
https://sustainablehosting.com/index.html?q=%s - Save it, then use it like any other search.
On your phone home screen
- Visit greener-go.sustainablehosting.com/
- Tap the tab icon or hold down the address bar until you see “Add to Home screen” or “Add widget.”
- Boom — you’ve got a clean, AI-free search icon right there beside your apps.
(If you prefer extensions, “Search Bar Ex” on Android also lets you add it directly.)
What it actually does
Greener-GO just adds a little query parameter (udm=14) to your Google searches. That tells Google: “Show the Web tab results, skip the AI Overview.”
You could type it manually every time, or build your own bookmarklet, but… why not use something built and hosted by the world’s oldest carbon-negative web host?
When you search through Greener-GO, you’re also helping us collect aggregate data on energy and water savings — quietly, anonymously, and only to display totals on the site.
No personal tracking. Just a public counter that says: “Here’s how much energy the community saved by skipping pointless compute cycles.”
It’s not flashy. It’s not instant. But, as anyone who’s ever set a bucket under a dripping leak knows — a few drops over time can fill it faster than you expect.
The good news? In this case, you won’t have to mop anything up.
A small step for searchers, a meaningful nudge for the web
If enough people use AI-free search tools like Greener-GO, those referral signals will eventually register.
And maybe — just maybe — the giants will realize that forcing AI summaries on everyone isn’t progress. It’s waste.
Greener-GO is free, open, and hosted on our renewable-powered infrastructure. Use it, share it, fork it, improve it — it’s on GitHub — and keep the web human.
Try it now
👉 Launch Greener-GO
👉 Learn more about Sustainable Hosting
(Carbon-negative, no offsets, green since 2006.)
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