Bad Connections Dog Google's Mountain View Wi-Fi Network

itwbennett writes "Google launched its Mountain View, CA public public Wi-Fi network in August 2006. It was one of the first public wireless Internet services in the U.S. and was intended to provide free service across the city. But in 2012, one year after Google signed a 5-year agreement to continue the service, it started a slow decline to the point of being unusable. 'We started noticing it in very large files, things like operating system updates, but now it's on files as small as 500 kilobytes,' said Rajiv Bhushan, chief scientist of pharmaceutical startup Livionex and a long-time user of the network. A recent test by IDG News Service resulted in a total failure to get a working Internet connection at a dozen sites around Mountain View, including in the city's main downtown area and directly in front of Google's headquarters." I've had disappointing results trying to connect to several other public wireless nets around the U.S., both privately sponsored and municipal. Do you know of any that work especially well?

WiFi with anal probe

[Animats]

The vast majority of attempts didn't even get as far as the log-in screen, which requires signing into a Google account to connect.

That's Google. "Public" WiFi with data mining.

Re:Seems to be a systemic problem.

[Anonymous Coward]

As both a Docs and Voice user, I can't related to your comment of deterioration. However, they don't get much in the way of new development, which I suppose could be considered neglect.

Though compared to Maps where there is significantly development and "improvement," they also don't makes sure a new version has the same feature set as the old. Navigation in particular has really taken a nosedive on Android.

consumer products

[fermion]

Pretty much Google's consumer products seem never to be improved or maintained. At first the consumer products were critical because this is why people like me allowed Google to set cookies, while 2o7 and the like were blocked. Of course we are now in world where tracking on the web goes beyond cookies, so maybe Google does not think it needs to provide a service beyond search to entice users.

In any case the decline of the WiFI is not surprising. It is like Google docs, now Drive, that started off as a really competitive product, but the office applications has never been updated so the features continue to lag. OpenOffice makes it look like vintage 1990.

Seriously. If MS were competent they could destroy Google with Bing and MS Windows Phone. But that is how the game works. Google does not have outrun the bear, it only has to outrun MS, which isn't that hard.

Re:WiFi with anal probe

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe we need a "free beer" type quip to help people distinguish public-access and public-ownership. and probably to understand the difference between them,

It's free. C'mon.

[skidisk]

I live and work in Mountain View (not for Google). Look, the thing is free. What do you expect? I can log in and use it reasonably well. I certainly wouldn't depend on it for my only connectivity, but it works well enough when I need a quick piece of data or need to send something and don't have cell service or am using a wifi device. Just chill.

Re:Seems to be a systemic problem.

[eclectro]

I wouldn't necessarily agree with you, look at google maps which have improved in quality, But this happened through a dedicated commitment to the project.

But in the other hand I have noticed that there are google "quality control" issues which I have experienced. A few of the patents in Google Patents have bad and unreadable pages (especially with the drawings) or are scanned crooked as an example.

I suspect that the wireless network is oversubscribed where you have people jamming each other (and the router) to get into a local router. This can be a problem with any radio technology when you have too many users on a channel. And google probably does not make money on this project and hence allocate resources for other things.

But this is a larger issue with WiFi networks in general. People think it's an infinite resource and can replace traditional wires everywhere. I assure you, it is not and can not.

Re:The solution

[Man On Pink Corner]

"In other news, something made by Google turns out to be a half-assed implementation of a good idea, unfavored by management and consequently determined to be a career-limiting move for Googlers unfortunate enough to be assigned to it. Consequently it is allowed to fall into disrepair, and will be scheduled for decommissioning at a time carefully calculated to maximize user inconvenience. Ric Romero has film at 11, so stay tuned for that."