'Hi. I'm still alive thanks to my friends at Google.'

Google have gotten all ‘philanthropic’ on our asses today with the UK launch of their new ‘PowerMeter’ electricity consumption contraption/service that we previewed earlier in the year. They claim they’re doing it save the planet and all of its innocent dying penguins, but doubts have been expressed over whether its just another way for them to clutch our personal data into their big Googly bosom. Who knows?

It works like this – the citizen (you for example) buys a self-installable AlertMe Energy kit and subscription (£69.00 for the hardware and then £2.99 per month). Then, hey presto, they can keep tabs on their energy consumption data on PowerMeter, as part of their iGoogle home page.

A link-up with the new breed of smart meters is also on its way. Research has shown that household energy bills fall by around 10% whenever consumers have more of a grasp on their energy use. Which is an enormous boon, and we’re always on the look out for enormous boons.

Google – saving the lives of penguins since 2009.