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A blog posting inspired Australian Todd Heap to launch blackle.com in February to help the world save energy one Google search at a time.

Heap Media says its creation, blackle.com, is an energy-saving version of Google. Instead of painting your computer screen white, blackle.com takes you to black-screen version of Google. Rather than using power to light up you the screen, Heap claims, blackle.com uses marginally less energy. Since so many people Google (an estimated 200 million searches per day), the savings will add up.

“People often say things like, ‘The problem is too big for one person’ and ‘This problem can only be solved by big corporations,’” Heap tells 225. “We think big corporations need to do their part (and many of them are starting to), but we also think that big savings can be achieved if each of us makes small changes in the way we use energy.”

Seems simple, right?

Not so fast. Not everyone buys Heap’s claims. One tech reporter conducted his own power consumption tests this summer and reported Heap’s claims are based on overly broad assumptions and are generally exaggerated.

Remarked one cynical reader who read about blackle.com at Knoxville, Tenn., alternative news site knoxviews.com: “That might save some energy in the short term, but it’s nowhere near the energy consumed by everyone having to drive to the eye doctor after they’ve been blinded by white text on a black screen.”