Troubleshoot common issues with Ecosia Search

This FAQ focuses on issues with Ecosia Search itself (results, tabs, content), not on browser‑specific problems. Find the section that best matches your issue and follow the steps.

If that doesn’t fix the problem, scroll to “Still need help?” at the end to contact us.

My results don’t match my location

If your results don’t seem specific to your location, this is usually related to your search region.

Ecosia is a privacy‑friendly search engine, so we don’t use your precise location to give you locally targeted results. Instead, we make a privacy‑conscious guess about your general region.

To improve local relevance:

• Check or change your search region in Ecosia’s settings or below the search bar after making a search.
• If you frequently clear your cookies or browsing history, your Ecosia settings (including region) will reset. You may need to re‑select your region, or create an exception so Ecosia’s cookies are not deleted.
• Add more detail to your query, for example use “sushi restaurant New York City” instead of “sushi restaurant near me”.

My search results are not accurate or relevant

If results look generally off, but not for location reasons:

• Try making your search more specific (e.g. add a brand, year, or type of content you want).
• Use filters where available (such as time filters).
• Remember that Ecosia works with search partners to provide results. In some cases, their ranking and index influence what you see.

If you consistently see irrelevant or clearly wrong results, you can report them to our providers, see: Content and ad removal requests.

I see results or interface in the wrong language

If your results or parts of the interface appear in the wrong language:

1. Check your Ecosia language settings
   • Open Ecosia, go to Settings and confirm the language you prefer.
   • Article: Ecosia Help Center (search for “Customize your Ecosia Search settings”).
2. Check your browser or device language
   • On some platforms, Ecosia follows your browser or system language.

Even with the correct settings, you may sometimes see results in other languages when that’s where the most relevant content is coming from.

There are no results, or I see an error instead of results

If you get an error, an empty page, or no results at all:

• First try a different query to see whether any results work.
• Check your internet connection and that you are using the official Ecosia website or app (for example, Ecosia - the search engine that plants trees in your browser).
• Temporarily disable VPNs, firewalls, antivirus, or content‑filtering tools that might block Ecosia or our search partners.
• Make sure JavaScript is enabled in your browser.

If problems persist across multiple devices or networks, you can report the issue to us. Please include screenshots and details to help us resolve the problem. 

There’s no news showing in the News tab

If you expected news results but don’t see any, or you see an error on the News tab:

• The News tab only shows results when a specific country region is selected in your Ecosia settings.
• If your region is set to “All Region” no news will be displayed.

To change the region and see news results:

1. Go to your Ecosia settings.
2. Select a specific search region.
3. Reload your search and open the News tab again.

Tabs like Images, Videos or News are missing

Sometimes certain tabs (for example Images, Videos, News) may not appear:

• Some search features are only available in specific regions or on specific devices.
• We sometimes run experiments that change which tabs are shown, or how they are ordered.
• Certain browser environments or in‑app webviews may not support all features.

If a tab you previously had access to disappears for a long time:

• Try another browser or device to compare.
• Check your region and language settings again.
• If you think it’s a bug (especially if many features disappear at once), please contact us and include the following details in your message:
  • Your device and OS,
  • Browser or app version,
  • Your country/region,
  • Screenshots of the search page and missing tab.

Safe Search is hiding content I want to see

If some results or images are missing, Safe Search may be filtering them.

• Go to your Ecosia Search settings to check your Safe Search level.
• In some environments (like schools, universities or workplaces), Safe Search may be enforced by an administrator and cannot be turned off.

For more on enforced Safe Search, see:

How to enforce Safe Search at a company, school or university.

The title or name of my website looks wrong on Ecosia

If you’re a site owner and you notice that Ecosia shows an unexpected or outdated title for your page, this might be because:

• Search engines sometimes use alternative titles based on signals like on‑page headings, metadata, or data from our partners.
• This means the title on Ecosia can differ from what you see in your HTML <title> tag, and from what appears on other search engines.

To improve how your title appears:

• Make sure your page title, main heading (H1), and metadata are clear and consistent.
• Check that your page is accessible and not blocking search engines.
• If the title on Ecosia still looks very wrong or misleading after changes, you can contact us and tell us:
  • The exact query you used,
  • The URL of your page,
  • A screenshot of the search results,
  • The title you expect to see.

You can also check:

Getting listed and advertising on Ecosia's search results

I see incorrect content in search result panels, cards or instant answers

For some queries, Ecosia shows rich results such as info panels, cards, or info boxes (for example for organisations, topics, or quick facts). These often come from our search partners and third‑party data sources, not directly from Ecosia.

Because of this, you might occasionally see:

• Outdated information (e.g. old opening hours, prices, or descriptions)
• Incorrect or misleading text or images about a person, place, or organisation
• A panel that mixes up two different entities

If you notice something that looks wrong:

• Check whether the same content also appears on other major search engines.
• Where possible, follow the link to the underlying source (for example Wikipedia, official websites, or data partners) and check if the data there is already incorrect or outdated.
• Ecosia cannot change the content, we recommend informing the respective provider directly.

You can report serious mistakes or harmful content via: Content and ad removal requests on Ecosia

I don’t see any ads in my search results

If you rarely or never see ads (sponsored results) on Ecosia:

• For many queries there might simply be no relevant ads available.
• If you use an ad blocker, privacy extension, or content filter, it can block Ecosia’s ads as well.

To allow ads (which fund our tree planting):

• Temporarily disable your ad blocker on Ecosia, or
• Add an exception for ecosia.org.

You can find more details here: How to enable ads on Ecosia when using ad blockers

How to report incorrect, harmful or spammy results or ads

If you see:

• Incorrect, misleading or spammy search results,
• Harmful or illegal content,
• Inappropriate or misleading ads,

you can report it directly to the provider. More information: Content and ad removal requests on Ecosia

When you report something, please include:

• The search query you used,
• Your country/region,
• The URL of the result or ad,
• A screenshot,
• A short explanation of what’s wrong.

Ecosia asks me to verify I am a human

Sometimes before you can use Ecosia, you might see a Cloudflare page asking you to prove you’re human (for example a quick “checking your browser” screen or a small challenge). This is part of our normal security checks to protect Ecosia from bots and abuse.

If this happens occasionally, you can simply:

• Complete the verification, and
• You’ll be redirected back to Ecosia to continue searching.

If Ecosia asks you to verify you’re human very frequently, try:

• Temporarily turning off VPNs, proxies or aggressive privacy/security extensions.
• Using a different network (for example mobile data instead of public or corporate Wi‑Fi).
• Making sure your browser is up to date, with cookies and JavaScript enabled for ecosia.org.

Ecosia blocks or denies my access (error EF 003)

In rare cases, you may be fully blocked from accessing Ecosia by our security systems. You might see a message like “Entry blocked by Ecosia Firewall” with the error code EF 003.

This usually happens when our firewall detects traffic that looks suspicious (for example from bots, VPNs, or certain corporate/school networks), even if you are a legitimate user.

What you can try:

• Try a different network (for example mobile data instead of your current Wi‑Fi).
• Temporarily turn off VPNs, proxies, or aggressive privacy/security extensions and reload Ecosia.

• Open this diagnostic page and take a screenshot:

  https://www.ecosia.org/cdn-cgi/trace

If you are still blocked after that, please email blocked@ecosia.org and include:

• A screenshot of the output from https://www.ecosia.org/cdn-cgi/trace
• The time it happened, your country/region, whether you’re on a home, work or school network, and whether you’re using a VPN or proxy.

Still need help

If:

• Your search results pages don’t load at all,
• Features (tabs, filters) suddenly disappear and don’t come back,
• You suspect a bug, a security or privacy issue, or serious content problems,

And none of the above solves your problem, then please submit a bug report here.