Continuing with its mission to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," Google is now looking to help out with your electric bills. The search giant's charitable wing, Google.org, has announced Powermeter, a platform designed to help users track their home electricity usage by displaying real time information on their computers.
The platform will receive data from so-called "smart meters," or advanced electricity meters and other electricity management devices that identify detailed energy consumption information. There are currently about 40 million smart meters in use worldwide, according to the company, with plans to add another 100 million in the next few years.
The gathered data is displayed on a graph that shows both the amount of power used and which device used it in any given period. The idea is to give people knowledge about their own energy usage so that they can be responsible about it and make smarter energy saving decisions. The program is in closed beta right now, but Google hopes that it will eventually be distributed to anyone who has a smart meter. Check out an introductory video after the jump.