Since 2006, we’ve been building the world’s largest open database tracking which parts of the internet run on renewable power – the Green Web Dataset. The Dataset powers a lot of our open source projects, including the Green Web Check, Green Web Directory, and our Greencheck API.
Over 7 million checks per day are made against the Dataset, and it is essential infrastructure for major software carbon estimation projects like Website Carbon Calculator, Ecograder, and WebPageTest. Our Green Web Directory, used by thousands each month, allows people to query the Dataset to find verified green hosting options in their country. So it’s important to us and others that the information in the Dataset is accurate and can be relied upon for decision making.
Why might there be incorrect information in the Dataset?
Our goal is for up to date data at all times. However, as a small team funded mostly by grants and donations we have limited resources. Our first priority is to verify data is correct at the moment it’s added. We manually check everything that is submitted, new submissions or updates, through our freely provided verification process.
But the Green Web Dataset contains information about hundreds of hosting providers across the globe. Over time, information about a given provider may start to become stale or outdated. This might happen for any number of reasons, but the most common are:
- The provider might have gone out of business or been acquired.
- The provider might have made changes to their services, but not updated their information with us.
- The provider might be yet to complete their annual reverification with us (see What is reverification for hosting providers?)
Whilst we prompt providers to regularly review their information, it’s not feasible for us to continually check this information on their behalf nor chase them down for a response. As an open source project, having the support of our users to help us when things could be improved makes a huge difference.
I think information about a provider is incorrect, what can I do?
If you think that the information for a given provider in the Green Web Directory is incorrect, there are a couple of ways you can help us ensure it gets fixed.
If you work for the provider
If you are an employee of the provider, then you can login to the Provider Portal and update the listing in question with new information.
I logged into the Provider Portal, but can’t find the provider listing
Provider listings are only visible to the users who created the listing, or who have been assigned as a manager for that provider.
After logging in to the Provider Portal, if you cannot see the provider you want to edit then that means you have not been granted permission to manage it. To fix this, you can either:
- Find the person in your organisation who created the listing & ask them to update it.
- Find the person in your organisation who created the listing & ask them to email our support inbox to get your user added. Please ensure that you provide both theirs and your User ID.
If you don’t work for the provider
If you are not an employee or representative of the provider in question, then you cannot make changes to their listing by yourself. In this case, you can either:
Contact the provider and ask them to update
In some cases, you might be a customer of the provider and have access to an account manager within the organisation you can speak to. In other cases, you might be limited to emailing the provider’s support mailbox.
In other cases, you might get a better response by tagging the provider on social media with a friendly message to update their listing.