Case Study: Ecosia
The objective
Leveraging dictionary data to enhance user experience by providing accurate and contextually relevant definitions.
The company and the product
Ecosia dedicate 100% of their profits to the planet and have planted more than 200 million trees (and counting) all over the world.
Ecosia was founded in 2009 by Christian Kroll who, while travelling, experienced firsthand the positive impact that trees have on communities and the planet.
Knowing that search engines tend to be very profitable, he decided to create a search engine that dedicates its profits to tree-planting and restoration projects. They are the first not-for-profit search engine and also run on solar energy, supporting local communities.
The search engine has captured the attention of users and news outlets around the world with their unique mission of planting trees for searchers. They allow their users to track their impact on ecosystems and communities as they search. Working with local organisations around the world, they currently plant trees in 35+ countries.
Learn more about Ecosia, powered by Oxford Languages.
The problem
Ecosia have secured their place in the search engine market and are successfully attracting users who are concerned about the climate and want to make a difference. Of course, Ecosia have an interest in providing their users with the best experience they can, to make sure they’re able to continue the great work they’re doing. Naturally, analysing what users are searching for, to what volume, and whether they’re managing to serve useful results is of great importance.
One area they noticed a significant volume of searches was in users searching for dictionary definitions, i.e. what certain words actually mean. This presented an opportunity for Ecosia to think further about how to offer users the best experience possible.
The Solution
To maximize their impact, Ecosia reached out to us to explore how they might be able to use our dictionary data in their search results.
Through licensing our human-curated dictionary data, Ecosia enabled themselves to serve dictionary definitions from right within the search results, reducing the need for users to click through to an additional website to answer their question.
The introduction of this feature to the search experience has increased the speed they are able to answer user queries around dictionary definitions, increasing overall satisfaction and reducing irritation caused by browsing less clear websites.
For more information about Ecosia, powered by Oxford Languages data, click here.
Additional information
If you’d prefer to read this case study offline, you can download it as a PDF. Learn how See how Ecosia improves UX by integrating our data and dictionary definitions into their search results.
Find Ecosia online
If you’d like to learn more about Ecosia you can visit them here:
Images courtesy of Ecosia