June 25, 2008

Google Joins the "Internet for Everyone" Initiative

Like a politician making campaign promises, Google has announced its involvement in the launch of the "Internet for Everyone" campaign. Unlike politicians, we actually know what the campaign is all about from the title and there's a higher chance of Google carrying out this platform than politicians keeping their promises.

The "Internet for Everyone" campaign is based on four principles: Access, Choice, Openness, and Innovation. Yup, that sounds like Google. Here's a brief history.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 16, 2006

Google WiFi Hits Mountain View For Free

Google is providing a free WiFi network under "GoogleWifi" (802.11b/g) in Mountain View, CA. Anyone can use it, including business, visitors and the 72,000+ residents. You must sign into the network with your Google Account, it is not fully public in that sense, but anyone can register for access. Ready to get started using GoogleWifi? There are more details on the "how to" at http://wifi.google.com/support and at the Google Blog.

I believe this is the first of many cities that Google will be providing free Wifi access to.

Postscript: The New York Times reports that "Google Says It Has No Plans for National Wi-Fi Service," I still believe they will continue to expand their network. Heck, cell phone coverage isn't completely nationwide, so how would we expect WiFi coverage (especially free coverage) to span the nation completely?

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:09 AM | Permalink

April 10, 2006

Privacy Concerns Over Free Google Wi-Fi & Plans To Expand To New Cities

Poor old Google. No matter what they do, there's always some preexisting privacy issue they suddenly get blamed for. This time it's over the plans to support free wi-fi access in San Francisco with ads and how that means people will be tracked across the city.

Wi-Fi plan stirs Big Brother concerns from the San Francisco Chronicle looks at the issue. Google says location data would be deleted after 180 days. Privacy advocates worry that government officials could demand this "treasure trove" of data to track people.

To use the Google service, you'd have to log into your Google account. Voila! That would mean Google knows who and where you are, since the wi-fi access point you tap into will have a known geographic location. Of course, you use the paid version from Earthlink, you give them a credit card, log into your Earthlink account. Voila! Exactly the same issue.

In fact, any fee-based wi-fi service you've used knows who you are. These services have existed for years and just like Google's service, know what locations you're logging in from.

I don't know how long they keep this data, but that's also because I've not seen any articles on the topic -- just like I seldom see articles about ISP having records of what you search for. Instead, it's Google and search engines in general that get the focus. Protecting Your Search Privacy: A Flowchart To Tracks You Leave Behind has more on this.

Don't get me wrong. People should definitely be concerned about such issues, and it would be great to have better laws to protect us. But they need to consider the ISP angle, as well.

Meanwhile, while Google said back in October that it had no plans to do free WiFi outside San Francisco, Om Malik points out that Earthlink's CEO says the two companies are looking to do a second city now.

EarthLink, Google discuss bid for second muni network from Dow Jones has more on that, along with Google reiterating that it doesn't plan to expand beyond the San Francisco Bay Area.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:47 AM | Permalink

April 6, 2006

Google & Earthlink To Win San Francisco Wireless Contract

Google & Earthlink are one step closer to providing wireless Internet access to San Francisco. News.com points to an AP story reporting how a review panel has recommended Google & Earthlink for the job based on their proposal last February.

The service would be free, supported by ads. An optional $20 month service would give ad free access and at speeds four to five times faster than the free service.

Privacy folks are not happy with the deal because both the free and fee based plans require you to login, providing the "opportunity for persistent tracking across sessions."

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:28 AM | Permalink

February 5, 2006

Google and Others Invest in Wireless Servies Company

Om Malik reports that Google, Skype, and others have invested in FON, a wireless services startup.

FON describes itself this way: FON is a Global Community of people who share WiFi. Share your WiFi broadband access at home/work and enjoy WiFi all over the world! FON, small cost, great benefit!

People who use FON are called Foneros and according to their blog: "...the service was launched just 90 days ago and we already have over 3,000 registered Foneros. While that number may seem small, 3,000 registered Foneros puts us at 10% of our 2006 objective in only 3 months… FON can now count Google, Skype, Sequoia Capital, and Index Ventures as investors and backers."

Om has described it in the past as, "Skype+Boingo+Open Source" but only in a WiFi context.

Om's friend and also a friend of all of us here at SEW Blog, Glenn Fleishman*, shared some less than positive comments about what FON is trying to do on OM's blog in the past. Tonight, Glenn has posted some new thoughts about today's announcement.

He believes that FON faces some major issues with ISP's and also thinks that municipal Wi-Fi networks like the one Google wants to offer in San Francisco and other muninicipal models would "distort the Fon model."

Btw, Glenn "strongly" believes that, "Google will not become a Wi-Fi provider beyond San Francisco and Mountain View (at least not on any large scale) because their interest is high-margin businesses like advertising not low-margin ones like service provision."

Late last week we posted comments from a Google representive about the company's WI-FI desires, plans in SF, and how they might fund such a project using highly targeted localized advertising delivered to users of the municipal WI-FI network like the one Google hopes to build in San Francisco.

From the artice: By keeping track of which access point a user is connected to, Google will be able to locate users within two blocks for the purposes of sending them advertising for businesses nearby, [Google's Christoper] Sacca said. Google would sell ads by postal code, potentially uncovering a new class of advertisers among small local businesses that don't buy space in other media today, he said. Google's localized ads would be a more efficient way for them to reach likely customers, according to Sacca..."Highly targeted ads may be able to pay for these things," Sacca said.

My question, would Google considering offer those who run FON routers the chance to make extra cash via localized Google advertising that's delivered to users who are are receiving WiFi bandwidth from a FON router? Would this provide extra incentive for different categories of providers as described by Glenn (free operators, for-fee operators, and non-operators) to offer FON services?

* On a completely unrelated note, Glenn Fleishman is also the developer and provider of the wonderful ISBN.nu book comparison pricing database.

Posted by Gary Price at 11:03 PM | Permalink

February 1, 2006

Google Talks With Sony and Motorola About Municipal Wi-Fi Nets

InfoWorld reports that Google has had conversations with Motorola and Sony about their products could best be used with municipal Wi-Fi networks. Google currently operates a Wi-Fi network in their home town of Mountain View, CA and is also in the running to build one in San Francisco. Google also sponsors a wireless network in New York City's, Bryant Park.

"We're doing everything we can to make this a playground for devices," said Christopher Sacca, principal in new business development at Google..."

The article also notes that Google is interested in the Sony PSP.

"There's like five million of those in the U.S. now, they've all got Wi-Fi in them. We're trying to do what we can to make those devices able to log on to this network," Sacca said.

Maybe a Google wireless games service (let's call it GGames) is in the works?

The article also touches on how Google might build and pay for wireless networks.

By keeping track of which access point a user is connected to, Google will be able to locate users within two blocks for the purposes of sending them advertising for businesses nearby, Sacca said. Google would sell ads by postal code, potentially uncovering a new class of advertisers among small local businesses that don't buy space in other media today, he said. Google's localized ads would be a more efficient way for them to reach likely customers, according to Sacca..."Highly targeted ads may be able to pay for these things," Sacca said.

In this post from October 2, 2005 I shared a scenario about how Google could eventually use a municipal Wi-Fi net to provide very targeted, time-sensitive, and localized advertising, even more localized than by Zip Code.

From the October post: One thing is for sure, this Wi-Fi info could provide truly "local" and if required, time-sensitive search advertising if Google decided to provide ads. You're using Google Wi-Fi and hitting tower near the 1600 block of Market Street at 11:20 am. Then, an ad appears asking you if you're interested in walking just a few steps and having lunch at the Zuni Cafe at 1658 Market St? If you make reservations via the Google Reservation and Ticket Service (just guessing about this initiative), you'll get 10% off lunch, 20% if you come between 1-2:30pm..." More about Google Wi-Fi in the article: Google eyes how mobile devices will use city Wi-Fi.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:38 AM | Permalink

January 18, 2006

Author of The Google Story, David Vise, Chats Google With Readers

Washington Post writer and the author of The Google Story, David Vise, chatted on WashingtonPost.com today about Google's most recent acquisition of radio ad firm DMarc (good background on how the technolgy works) and many other topics from where to send your ideas for new Google services to wheather or not a Google Calendar on it's way. The transcript of Vise's chat is available here.

Posted by Gary Price at 5:38 PM | Permalink

December 19, 2005

Google One of Five Finalists for San Franscisco Citywide Wi-Fi Project

Om Malik posts over on Gigaom that Google has been shortlisted as one of the five finalists for the free San Fransciso Wi-Fi service that the sitting hopes to have up and running in 2006. I posted a few months ago that 17 companies submitted proposals, Om says it was 26. Whatever the may be, the list has been to five companies:

  • Earthlink
  • Google
  • Hewlett-Packard
  • MetroFi and
  • Skytel/MCI.

Our post from October 16th has links to where you'll find the full text or exec summaries of many of the proposals along with key passeges from the document.

Posted by Gary Price at 5:21 PM | Permalink

November 25, 2005

Google Spaces Internet Cafe At London Heathrow & Google Featured In UK TV Ads

Via Google Blogoscoped, Google turns Heathrow into testing lab from ZDNet covers Google opening a "Google Space" internet cafe at London's Heathrow airport, plus Google's been showing up in UK TV ads in conjunction with T-Mobile.

The Google Space cafe is open through December 19. Two Google employees will be on hand to help people use 10 laptops and discover Google products. Not sure what happens if they pop in and prefer to check Yahoo Mail instead!

A new Google Space page at the Google web site has official information and all the look and feel of another Google promotional campaign we wrote about earlier, Google College Life.

First a special College life, powered by Google page was spotted. Then it turned out that this page was the end destination for Google ads running in college newspapers.

So when the Google Space page talks about "You may have heard about our Google Space project at London's Heathrow Airport in Terminal 1," it makes me think that somewhere, Google's probably running an ad campaign for this that hasn't yet surfaced.

That leads me to those TV ads. I first saw them about two weeks ago. They're pitching T-Mobile's Web 'n' Walk service, but Google is the starring player.

First it's girl meets boy:

Then girl spots boy's name (or an author he's reading, it's not really clear):

So girl runs to the loo where she:

Googles the boy (or the author)

The she runs back and they have a happy conversation because she either found nothing bad about the boy or found something to talk about (the author he's reading).

I asked Google two weeks ago if they were paying for some of these ads (I've also seen print versions in the Daily Telegraph here), but I haven't yet gotten an answer. Fair to say, T-Mobile is not making a big deal of Google in these ads unless some type of arrangement has been reached.

Postscript: Philipp over at Google Blogoscoped reminds me that this ad already aired on German TV as he's written.

Postscript 2: Gary finds this BBC article, Google extends searching offline, that also talks about the program and quotes Google discussing it. Google's European director of marketing talks about how they see the area as a "huge focus group" and how all of Google's products all "comes back to our core DNA of search." Yep, helping people put banner ads on web pages (Google AdSense), helping them put ads in print publications (Google Publication Ads), helping them blog (Blogger), helping them do instant messaging (Google Talk), all that's pretty core to search -- not. But to be fair, none of these non-search activities appear to be mentioned in the Google Spaces area.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:41 AM | Permalink

November 21, 2005

Google's Portable Data Centers & Alternative Internet Speculation

Google-Mart from PBS's Robert X. Cringely covers Google apparently having developed incredibly compact data centers that can fit into a shipping container, suitable for perhaps dropping at internet nexus points. Purpose? Cringely speculates that high speed data centers plus its own bandwidth means Google will effectively have its own internet, giving it a competitive advantage that others can't meet.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:51 AM | Permalink

November 17, 2005

Google's Offer to Provide Free WiFi in Mountain View is a Go

This story from the San Jose Mercury News report that Google's offer free WiFi throughout their hometown of Mountain View, California, is a go.

City leaders unanimously accepted Google's offer Tuesday night to make Mountain View the first city in the Bay Area -- and possibly the country -- to get a full umbrella of free WiFi coverage. Google will install as many as 400 transmitters the size of a shoe box on streetlamps throughout the city

The story goes on to say that Google's WiFi contract with the city is for five years and will begin by June.

Google is also testing its WiFi idea at Rockefeller Center in New York and Union Square in San Francisco. In its offer, Google product manager Minnie Ingersoll said the company wants to use Mountain View as a test site to learn more about the cost and the challenges of building and supporting a wireless network, with the ultimate aim of driving more traffic to Google.

Perfect, now I can surf the web AND enjoy a Double-Double (animal style, please) at the same time In-N-Out Burger when I visit Mountain View. (-:

Much more about the Google/WiFi in Mountain View story in the San Jose Mercury News article: Mtn. View accepts Google's offer of free WiFi.

As you know, Google is also one of seventeen companies bidding to provide free WiFi service throughout the city of San Francisco placing radios on 1900 lamp posts and in buildings. You can read more about the San Francisco proposal here.

Posted by Gary Price at 3:19 PM | Permalink

November 10, 2005

Google Wants Free WiFi For Mountain View

Like others, we were dubious when Google said it didn't have plans to expand free wifi outside of San Francisco, where it has pitched a plan to that city. Google expands coverage offer to Mountain View from the San Jose Mercury News (spotted via SiliconBeat) covers how Google has now approached the city of Mountain View, where it's based, with a similar idea.

What better place asks Mountain View's mayor. Hmm. As someone who was stuck without ANY broadband option for years, how about some places that could really use it? Ah, heck -- gotta start somewhere.

Google wants to put 300 transmitters onto telephone poles and lights. Those are also receivers, as well -- nice way to help know exactly where the wifi users are and show them some targeted ads, as has been discussed before.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:33 AM | Permalink

October 16, 2005

More on Google's Plan for Wi-Fi in San Francisco; Text of Google's Filing Available

If you're interested in learning more about Google's plan (one of 17) for providing free Wi-Fi access throughout San Francisco, the San Jose Mercury News article: S.F. unveils 17 firms' WiFi bids, has a few more details in addition to what was reported a few weeks ago.

We've also made available the full text of an eight page document of the request for information/comments (RFI/C) Google (Word Doc) filed with the city. Note: If you would like to read the RFI/C filed by the 16 other providers, you can download them all here. Comments that were submitted are also available for download. More about the SF plan here.

From the Merc article: Google has offered to build the network for free, as has fellow Mountain View company MetroFi. Google's eight-page response was heavy on company philosophy, but provided few details on the company's blueprint for a San Francisco wireless Internet, or WiFi, network.

The company hopes to work with San Diego-based WFI, which would provide network engineering and installation services. Google also hopes to leverage its skill at bringing ultra-targeted advertising to those who use its network. `Now mom-and-pop local shops will be able to specifically target affordable advertisements to WiFi network users within a few-block radius,'' Google said in its response. Google's response said it would bring free Web connection speeds of 300 kilobits per second citywide.

I focused on the very localized advertising that would be available in my first post about the plan.

Key Points From Google's RFI to City of San Francisco (Executive Summary)

  • Google plans to build and operate a Wi-Fi mesh network covering the City and County of San Francisco. To ensure availability by the largest number of client devices, the network will use open radio standards, including 802.11b and 802.11g as well as 802.11n (when ratified). The network will be designed to offer more than 1Mbps of symmetric service throughout the entire city.
  • To facilitate better indoor reception, users may be encouraged to purchase a CPE (customer premises equipment) to connect to the Wi-Fi network.
  • In furtherance of the goal of enabling other providers to offer services on the Google Wi-Fi network, wholesale access will be provided at rates vastly discounted from the retail prices at which fixed line and 3G service providers are offering services today. Any willing partners will be able to resell access to a network at substantially higher data rates than the free solution, potentially reaching 2-3Mbps of throughput. Google may also sell such high speed access to consumers, as well as other potential premium services.
  • The City will make available to Google the rights to mount radios (access points) and point-to-multipoint gateways on approximately 1900 lamp posts and at building locations determined by our clutter analysis.

    • The remainder of the eight page document has info about Google company leadership, Google's wireless "philosophy", a sentence on Google Secure Access, material on what will make the Google's SF service successful including the company's important quality, "may be our refusal to accept the status quo," and Google's ability to work with their project partner, WFI. Lots of WFI info, too.

    Posted by Gary Price at 4:32 PM | Permalink

    October 3, 2005

    Google Not Alone In Desire to Build San Francisco Wi-Fi Network

    In my post about Google filing a proposal to provide free Wi-Fi access throughout San Francisco, I tried to make it clear that Google wasn't the only company filing a proposal with the city. I think some believed that it was Google all the way. A News.com article by Stefanie Olsen: Google faces obstacles in S.F. Wi-Fi bid, does a great job taking a look at some of the the other companies in the running and notes that whatever company, if any, is chosen, they will face "lawsuits or legislation" according to the San Francisco Mayor, Gavin Newsome.

    Olsen mentions that, Ericsson, Motorola, Nortel, SeaKay/Cisco, Symbol Technologies, SkyTel, Extreme Networks, GigaBeam and Metro-Fi are some of the other companies that have submitted proposals. The Wall Street Journal reported that Earthlink has also submitted materials.

    ...consumer privacy is a concern, Newsom said in response to a question at the conference about the possibility that companies providing Wi-Fi access would be looking to gather data on the location of users to deliver ads, in an example of the value of such information. [Mayor Gavin] Newsom's office will form a five- to seven-person committee, which includes [Chris] Vein, [director of the department of technology and information services for San Francisco], to analyze the proposals and make recommendations on them within the next three weeks. After that time, the committee will make specific requests for information for a network.

    If the network is a go, the city hopes to have it up and running sometime in 2006.

    Btw, as noted in my earlier post, a spokesperson for the for Mayor Newsome said Google will not receive an advantage because of their high or what News.com calls their "celebrity" profile.

    Posted by Gary Price at 9:17 PM | Permalink

    October 2, 2005

    Google Bidding To Provide Free Wi-Fi To San Francisco

    Google has joined the competition along with 11 other companies including as Earthlink to provide San Francisco residents and visitors with free wi-fi. San Francisco expects to decide on a vendor within weeks. If Google is selected, it says it could have a network up and running within weeks, as well. Google says it doesn't have plans to expand free wi-fi beyond San Francisco, though the company has already said previously that it sees helping promote universal internet access as part of its corporate mission. Below, a round-up of coverage on the news.

    According to Om Malik's post from Friday:

    Google officials say San Francisco residents (and visitors) will enjoy a free 300 kilobits per second, always on connection anywhere in the city. As part of its proposal, the company says it will be offering wholesale access to other service providers, who will offer higher throughput connections to their customers.

    Verne Kopytoff and Ryan Kim in the SF Chronicle add that Google isn't the only company bidding on the project.

    Google's was one of more than a dozen competing bids received by the city before its deadline Friday. Officials will review the submissions and decide which, if any, of the candidates gets the green light...

    The article goes on to mention that Google's Chris Sacca, the person in charge of Google's bid, hasn't determined yet if paid ads will be part of the service but will sell access to the network for companies who want to offer paid services. Coverage from the Associated Press is also here.

    In case you're wondering a spokesperson for the SF Mayor Gavin Newsome said the decision would be made in weeks not months and that Google will receive NO advantage because of their high profile (aka just being Google).

    At this point I could ask what any of this has to do with search and organizing the world's info, but doing that is old, repetitive, and a waste of time. Plus, Google is into what Google is into which is just about everything. With their published corporate mission statement, they are able to spin just about anything into being about organizing info and providing access to it. I even joked about that last April Fools Day. (Postscript from Danny: Google has said promoting internet access is part of its corporate mission, as explained here).

    A day after the news came out, Google in San Francisco: 'Wireless overlord'? from News.com gives a rundown on what are people saying. Some wonder about Google knowing to much about their users.

    "They will know much more information about your activities" than they can glean from a stationary PC, Ira Victor, managing partner for security information firm Data Clone Labs, said in an interview.

    One thing is for sure, this Wi-Fi info could provide truly "local" and if required, time-sensitive search advertising if Google decided to provide ads. You're using Google Wi-Fi and hitting tower near the 1600 block of Market Street at 11:20 am. Then, an ad appears asking you if you're interested in walking just a few steps and having lunch at the Zuni Cafe at 1658 Market St? If you make reservations via the Google Reservation and Ticket Service (just guessing about this initiative), you'll get 10% off lunch, 20% if you come between 1-2:30pm. You'll also get a Google t-shirt (some autographed by Google execs), and a chance to win a ride aboard the new NASAGOOGLE spaceship. Heck, if you're also a Google AdWords customer, they'll knock a few bucks off of your next bill. (-:

    By the way, Dan Gillmor also touches on the Google vs. privacy issue in his blog post saying it's an issue that keeps appearing. More on that topic later.

    Others in the blogosphere speculate what this might do to the telecom industry and many agree that Google is once again driving innovation. Let's also not forget Google's plans to build it's own telecom network.

    Of course, since Google's bid is one of many and it will not be getting any special attention (-:, we'll have to wait and see if they even have the opportunity to provide the service.

    Posted by Gary Price at 2:06 AM | Permalink

    September 29, 2005

    Google WiFi In New York's Bryant Park

    Google Wi-Fi in NYC, spotted via Russell Shaw, shows Google backing wifi in New York's Bryant Park. Another stepping stone down the GoogleNet path? It looks more like Google's putting up the money to make it "Provided by Google," as it says on the sign, rather than "Powered By Google."

    Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:38 AM | Permalink

    September 22, 2005

    More On Google WiFi Client

    Google WiFi Client Explained from Om Malik is a quick, nice follow up on some of the Google WiFi stuff. In short, people ARE using it even outside of San Francisco, along with some info on how it works and maybe isn't so secure.

    Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:40 AM | Permalink

    September 20, 2005

    Secure Wireless Access From Google & More On GoogleNet Broadband Plans

    Google Pulls The Other Leg With Secure Access from InsideGoogle covers new Google Secure Access wireless software now being offered for download, while Threadwatch and Om Malik points to the Google Reviewing Bids for National Optical Switching Network article at IP Media Monitor (free reg. required) adding further proof that Google is building out a US nationwide optical fiber network.

    Google Secure Access is software you install on your computer designed to let you establish a more secure WiFi connect, or so the FAQ page says. A Google engineer apparently developed this during his personal 20 percent time. While the FAQ says it's available for download at "certain Google WiFi locations in the San Francisco Bay Area," I was able to download it from the UK. I haven't yet installed it to see if I could get a secure wireless connection through an access point routed through Google, however.

    All internet traffic you send and received is encrypted and sent through Google. Google says in its privacy policy that it may log some of the pages you view. It says cookies aren't logged and some query data is stripped away. However, it probably still logs your IP and may have other ways of knowing a particular person may be using the service.

    Google Web Accelerator Raises Worries covers just some of the concerns that the earlier Google Web Accelerator program raised about privacy and other issues. The company stopped offering the internet browsing software days after it was released, saying as it does today:

    Thank you for your interest in Google Web Accelerator. We have currently reached our maximum capacity of users and are actively working to increase the number of users we can support.

    Five months later, Google doesn't appear to have solved the "support" problem, making it seem much more likely that the negative reaction to web accelerator means it may never return or not for some lengthy period.

    That leads to Nathan's "pulls the other leg" headline over at InsideGoogle. He, as with many others, assumes that web accelerator was a master plan to get data from users as a means of improving search results.

    Perhaps, but as I've said before, Google doesn't need either Web Accelerator or Google Secure Access for this. It already has millions of installed copies of the Google Toolbar that, when advanced features are switched on, gives it plenty of data about browsing habits of surfers -- and data is has had access to for years.

    Both Web Accelerator and Google Secure Access could add to that data, but they are giant, bandwidth intensive ways to get what can be gained more easily through other methods.

    So why offer these? Back when news that Google had invested in a broadband-over-powerlines company came out, the company made it clear:

    As part of our corporate mission, we are interested in promoting universal access to the internet for users.

    Google wants everyone online. Get everyone online, and you can more easily ensure you're routing them to Google information for searching the web, searching video, whatever. And along the way, you'll show them ads -- targeted to what they're viewing, to where they are actually located (as Om's written) or whatever. Which leads to the other key bit of news, the bids for a optical fiber network.

    The IP Media Monitor article says the network would be cheaper to construct than some similar networks, maybe costing only $100 million, and be up and running within months. The assumption is that offering video services is a chief reason why Google wants the network.

    The article also talks about the "last mile" problem and how it might be closed by connecting the network to users through wireless. And hey, wouldn't it be cool if you had a bunch of people feeling more comfortable about wireless if they had a secure connection? How about some software with that?

    Want to comment or discuss? Visit our forum thread, Google Wireless & Broadband Moves.

    Postscript: Google begins limited test of Wi-Fi service from Reuters has Google confirming that it is offering two wifi spots near its headquarters, but it won't comment on any further evolution of this test.

    Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:10 AM | Permalink

    September 8, 2005

    Google Hires Vint Cerf As Chief Internet Evangelist

    Google has hired internet "founding father" and pioneer Vint Cerf to be the company's first "chief internet evangelist." His job seems to be to help build Google leadership within the internet community, plus it's said that Cerf will help Google "build network infrastructure, architectures, systems, and standards for the next generation of Internet applications." You can expect that to further fuel the idea that Google is constructing what Om Malik has termed a GoogleNet of univesal internet access. More details on the appointment from Google here.

    Postscript - Some further press coverage:

    • 'Father of Internet' returns to roots with new Google job from the San Jose Mercury News on Cerf coming aboard in early October, taking with him his chief of staff at MCI, where he's president of technology strategy. He says he wants to get more involved again in developing applications.  
    • Cerf's Up for Google at BusinessWeek has some further speculation on how Cerf may fit into Google's plans to to into internet access and telecommunications.  
    • Internet Pioneer Vinton Cerf Joins Google from the AP says Cerf will remain chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which oversees domain names.

    Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:57 AM | Permalink

    August 15, 2005

    Yahoo Will Launch VoIP Service & Google Planning GoogleNet With Free Wi-Fi?

    Internet analyst Safa Rashtch from Piper Jaffray said in a note today that Yahoo will launch a VoIP service in the next two weeks. Red Herring has more.

    Yahoo already offers a VoIP service as part of its Yahoo Messenger service. I also posted a few weeks ago that Yahoo recently had a VoIP patent application published by the USPTO. Yahoo also has also been awarded a few VoIP-related patents. Here are two examples. 1 ||| 2 . Both of these patents were awarded 2003.

    Meanwhile over at Business 2.0, Om Malik reports on Google quietly building its own (as has been rumored for some time) telecommunications network that might one day be used to provide free wireless access across America. Google could also provide targeted advertising based on the users exact location.

    Posted by Gary Price at 8:18 PM | Permalink

    July 7, 2005

    Google Invests In Broadband Access Over Power Lines

    Google, Goldman And Hearst Invest In Broadband Firm from the Wall Street Journal (paid subscription required) reports that Google, along with Goldman Sachs and media publisher Hearst, are investing in a company that provides broadband Internet access via power lines.

    According to the article, the three companies will invest $100 million in Current Communications, of Germantown, Maryland. The report mentions that Current's technology allows for uploads as fast as downloads which might be useful for uploading video to Google Video.

    The technology could also be a tool for Google to provide a service that requires broadband access, VoIP (voice-over-Internet).

    Here's what Google had to say in a statement provided to the WSJ:

    As part of our corporate mission, we are interested in promoting universal access to the internet for users.

    Google's stated mission, as a reminder, is:

    To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible.

    So apparently, the mission of organizing the world's information means that the world needs to be online, perhaps with Google's help. Is this the beginning of Google, the internet service provider? Stay tuned.

    By the way, Reuters is running a brief article that is available for free. For more about Internet access over power lines, see: Plugging Into the Net, Through the Humble Wall Outlet, from The New York Times (Oct. 28, 2004)

    Posted by Gary Price at 9:38 AM | Permalink