Would you use less energy if you could see what you were actually using in real time? Google is betting that you will, as they pursue their goal to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful". 

I think this has to be one the most progressive ideas to come out of Google yet. Imagine being able to see the amount of energy each appliance in your house uses? Having that kind of information could really put some perspective on things. Electric bills till this point have been, for the most part, a blind cost. If I could compare whether or not boiling water on the stove was using less or more energy than say a kettle, I could make a more informed decision to use the one with less cost. Imagine that bit of saving across an entire population. [via New York Times Blog]