We are carrying out an experiment to get a better understanding of how people use search engines. Our ultimate goal is to make search engines work better, by presenting more appropriate results to each person.
For our research we need a history of the searches that a person does over a period of time, together with information about which search results were clicked on. We collect this via a browser extension.
Participants in the experiment are completely anonymous and we don't collect any personal data from anyone, just a list of the keywords they searched and which results (if any) they clicked.
To show our appreciation for the volunteers who join our experiment, we are making donations to a carbon offsetting charity sufficient to offset the carbon produced from running each PC. So if you take part, your PC will be carbon neutral for the duration of the experiment! "You search the web, we hug a tree."
It's easy to take part - just download and install a small browser extension from the experiment's homepage (which includes full instructions). The browser extension works with both Internet Explorer and Firefox - sorry, Safari users! You can leave the experiment at any time by uninstalling the extension, and it will automatically deactivate when the experiment finishes.
See our Facebook page for full details and to keep up to date with the amount of carbon we have offset!
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