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Google recently stated that it would utilize its software knowledge to help consumers track their home energy utilization and by doing so lower demand and the global warming emissions that result from electricity production. The move is part of Google’s attempts to infuse hundreds of millions of dollars into renewable energy, electricity-grid upgrades and other steps that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Google has already invested in various newcomer solar, wind and geothermal companies, as well as two “smart grid” companies. Smart grid describes a more efficient and less expensive process of moving electricity along long-distance transmission lines to local power lines and consumers in homes and businesses.

On its blog, Google stated it is developing a smart grid application named Google PowerMeter, which will display home energy use virtually in real time on a user’s computer. The company referenced studies showing that access to home energy data typically saves between five to fifteen percent on monthly electricity bills. The application currently is not available to the public. The company desires to develop partnerships with utility companies so it can offer PowerMeter to consumers in the coming months. Google’s investments in smart grid companies include Germantown, Maryland-based Current Group and Redwood City, California-based Silver Spring Networks.

By conducting two Google searches from a desktop computer can create about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle, based on new research. A typical search generates about 7 grams of CO2. Boiling a kettle generates about 15 grams. This is the case since Google operates vast data centers around the world that consume significant power. Google is tight-lipped about its energy consumption and carbon footprint. It also does not disclose the locations of its data centers. However, with more than 200 million online searches estimated globally on a daily basis, the electricity consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions caused by computers and the Internet is provoking concern.

A recent review by Gartner stated the global IT industry generated as much greenhouse gas as the world’s airlines — about 2% of global CO2 emissions. User searches are often sent to servers thousands of miles apart, whichever produces the answer fastest. The system minimizes delays but increases. energy consumption. Google maintains servers in the U.S., Europe, Japan and China.

A manufacturer of over-the-counter cold and flu remedies launched a program this week for the T-Mobile G1, known as the “Google phone,” that warns users about how many people in an area are suffering colds. The “Zicam Cold & Flu Companion” will state, for example, that 8 to 14% of the people in a zip code have respiratory illnesses, representing a “moderate” risk level. To give hypochondriacs and germophobes even more information to ponder, it also will describe what symptoms are common, such as coughing and sore throat. Users can additional request the application to provide information about risk levels in other zip codes, so they can steer clear of, for example, Atlanta, one of the five most infected cities in the nation currently, according to Zicam.

Matrixx Initiatives Inc., the Arizona company that manufacturers products under the Zicam brand, receives the information on disease levels from Surveillance Data Inc. - which inturn gets its data from polling health care providers and pharmacies. The “Companion” is available for free from the Android Marketplace, the directory of downloadable programs for the G1. Notably, later this month, the program will be available for the iPhone, according to Matrixx. Google which created the G1’s operating system, launched its own national and state web-based flu tracker recently. This information is based on the number of people conducting flu-related searches into Google’s search engine.