"doing something" does not mean "doing something effectively", nor does it demonstrate any energy savings. A "web request" is an ambiguous term. Does it mean HTML requests only? Okay, what does that mean? Images, text, video? RequestPolicy would let you tailor it to your own needs, I'm just pointing out that the OP's suggestion is meaningless.

I was ready to call bullshit on the whole story when I saw the name. Non parlo italiano, but "recupero" in an efficiency story stands out.

Welcome to /.

Oh I don't know about that. /. editing has been consistently pisspoor through the years. I'm just glad that the Roland Piquepaille years are behind us.

Every sentence in your post should be wrapped in "citation needed". What constitutes "The Internet" in this discussion? By what metric is it inefficient? What is the basis for your claim that there was no consideration about the actual power requirements? What do you mean by "energy efficient in a purist sense"?

Oh, okay. THAT's the problem. Data mining for government and corporate interests. What the hell does "simply serving web requests" mean? I don't even know where to start with this.