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Google Businesses The Internet Networking Wireless Networking Hardware

Google Seeks to Develop Parallel Internet? 408

Posted by Zonk from the they-came-from-above-we-had-no-chance dept.
KhanReaper writes "As reported on On the Media and Business 2.0, Google appears to be purchasing dark (unused) fiber optic cable across the United States with the intention of building its own alternative parallel internet that would presumably be called GoogleNet. Possessing such a thing could allow Google to offer internet access in the form of free wifi or other means and create a powerful captive marketing audience which Google could monopolize. Outside of these marketing opportunities, such a development in infrastructure could help reduce Google's long-term content delivery costs were it to take on more bandwidth-intensive activities in the future."
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Google Seeks to Develop Parallel Internet? More

Google Seeks to Develop Parallel Internet?

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  • Or Maybe (Score:5, Insightful)

    by varmittang ( 849469 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @05:47PM (#13422909)
    Its to connect datacenters together so that all of Googles search databases have the same information. Just maybe that is the reason the would need a high speed internet of their own.

    • Re:Or Maybe (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 28, 2005 @05:56PM (#13422972)
      Well, that would be the logical reason. However, this is slashdot. We need more Google conspiracy posts.

      • Re:Or Maybe (Score:4, Interesting)

        by The-Bus ( 138060 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @07:17AM (#13426306)
        Mind you, Business 2.0 reported that Google Talk would "use VOIP technology to dial phone numbers in local search results" -- so you want to take their speculation with a grain of salt. What's funny is that their magazine came out about a day after Google announced what Google Talk was. So that was kind of, you know... awkward.

    • Separate Internet Unlikely (Score:5, Insightful)

      by wintermute1974 ( 596184 ) <wintermute@berne-ai.org> on Sunday August 28, 2005 @06:01PM (#13423010) Homepage
      Google to create its own Internet? Unlikely.

      The whole reason that Google is an important company is that it crawls through the publicly-accessible parts of the Internet in order to index its contents.

      If Google is to retain its premier position in the search engine market, then it will very much so remain firmly connected to the existing Internet.

      This is why I agree with the parent post: It is quite reasonable to believe that Google might require this bandwidth for its own purposes.

      There is nothing at all wrong with this. The Internet, after all, is merely a network of networks. All this means is that behind Google's accessible IP addresses lurks a mammoth network of its own.

      • Re:Separate Internet Unlikely (Score:5, Insightful)

        by fsterman ( 519061 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @06:28PM (#13423155) Homepage
        More plausable is that it would use it for backbone to major areas. This would avoid paying a telco for the same service. The final mile, block, whatever would just be handled by local carriers or a possible Google WiFi connection.

      • Re:Separate Internet Unlikely (Score:5, Insightful)

        by colmore ( 56499 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @08:23PM (#13423686) Journal
        Or maybe they just recognize that all that fiber is a valuable asset that is for the moment very undervalued. I'm sure they'll have something to do with some of it, but it might just be a smart investment.

      • If Google is to retain its premier position in the search engine market, then it will very much so remain firmly connected to the existing Internet.

        I agree that they will stay part of the existing internet, but what if they have a new Internet layered on top of it, which only their search engine will index, and which features adwords on every page because they control it. Free name.google domains in the new googlenet. This will help entrench the position of google's mindshare.
        "I get on googlenet, and go t

    • Re:Or Maybe (Score:5, Insightful)

      by sumdumass ( 711423 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @06:03PM (#13423025) Journal
      It may be to offer download quicker and cheaper too.
      I'm sure the bandwidth fees going from next door of your current ISP the to your house is sustantialy cheaper and probably faster then going from CA to Middletown ohio and fighting trafic of evereyone else involved in the process.

      They would still have to transmit it from CA to Middletown but on thier own lines would be cheaper and more efficient. Who knows, it might be somethign for future VIOP offering too.

      I'm not sure why some people see this as some evil act. The existing line aren't doing anything constructive as it sits. If at minimum, it reduces trafic or increases the internets ability ot handle the traffic, i'm all for that.
    • Right you are. This is the second time this story has appeared on Slashdot, and the "trail of clues" is as unconvincing as it was last time.

      Google is many things, but Santa Claus [slashdot.org] is not one of them.

    • If we want to go out on a limb. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by mcc ( 14761 ) <amcclure@purdue.edu> on Sunday August 28, 2005 @06:11PM (#13423072) Homepage
      That's the obvious and reasonable interpretation, yep.

      However, it might not be particularly unrealistic to suspect that Google might be considering starting an ISP.

      Right now the ISP market is kind of shrinking because last-mile issues are effectively preventing anyone from providing broadband service unless they already own a high-bandwidth wire going directly into your house. However if 802.16 and similar technology delivers on its promises, it could remove this obstacle-- meaning that you'd be able to break into the ISP market with little more than the kind of purchases Google is making right now.

      This theory is most definitely a stretch! However, unlike Business 2.0's "make a second internet and provide free access for some reason!" theory, at least it isn't stupid.

      Also, who's to say Google even has a plan as to what to do with this dark fiber? As even Business 2.0 notes, now is a really good time to buy this stuff; you can get it cheap. Anybody ever heard of buy low, sell high? :P

    • How about this? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by SaDan ( 81097 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @06:57PM (#13423315) Homepage
      They're buying up all this dark fiber to connect all of their data centers, and possibly implementing IPv6 on all of their networks.

      My guess is they're jumpstarting the migration to IPv6 with their own backbone. Offer free WiFi, but it'll be IPv6. Not only does everyone (possibly) get free WiFi, but they also get their own net block.

      *scratches chin*

      Now THAT would be something.

  • GoogleNet? (Score:5, Funny)

    by wmspringer ( 569211 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @05:48PM (#13422913) Homepage Journal
    At least there's never any confusion over what google's inventions are going to be called.

    Curious to see exactly what they have in mind..

  • Who read that as... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 28, 2005 @05:51PM (#13422929)
    ... "Google Seeks to Develop Parallel Universe?"

  • You people are insane. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 28, 2005 @05:52PM (#13422933)
    Google hires an operating system engineer.

    Clearly Google is writing the operating system to a super space robot that will be used to eradicate Microsoft!

    Google buys a company that makes photo organizer software.

    Clearly Google is doing this so that they can recreate iPhoto, as a preliminary step to creating competing products to iCal, iDisk, Apple Mail, and finally Mac OS X itself!

    Google hires a janitor.

    Clearly that janitor is secretly a superhero with super-strength which Google will use to eliminate all crime on earth!

    Google buys up some disused fiber-optic cable.

    Clearly Google is going to make their own internet!

  • Damnit (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 28, 2005 @05:54PM (#13422941)
    They're forking the internet again!
  • it shouldnt be hard to compete with the greedy likes of sbc/comscast/etc on price/bandwidth ratio...everything google does need not be free to be a success
    • Charging would do nothing but start a price war. Being free allows them to continue their advertising model and build their advertising network into an even larger empire than it is today.

  • Yea, and it will get married in white too. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 28, 2005 @05:54PM (#13422943)
    There would be no bigger prize than GoogleNet. Like the internet and Internet2 before it, GoogleNet will be hacked and polluted with porn, movie uploads, warez and viagra spam.

    I don't give it a month before it loses its virginity in the back seat of a Cisco router.

  • Steve Jobs once said ... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by SamSeaborn ( 724276 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @05:54PM (#13422945)
    Steve Jobs once said (circa 1998) that the only place in technology where there's true innovation is the internet because Microsoft doesn't own it.


    This GoogleNet idea is an interesting one, but I expect such a proprietary internet would lack would be shunned by the hackers and outlaws that bring true innovation to the technology world.


    That being said, Google is much more open to developers than the other monopoly we're familiar with. And they have been collecting money and PhDs at an alarming rate -- they have something big planned.


    Clearly Google realizes (like Microsoft before them) that he who owns the platform wins. By building a "better" internet, GoogleNet could be the next Win32 API enabling Google to have an earth-shattering money machine. Perhaps Google's stock is not over-valued afterall.


    Sam

    • Google believes that barriers to switching, or vendor lock-in, is counter productive. In many ways it is. Customers LIKE to have choices, and lock-in deters them from choosing you. They have decided that avoiding the lock-in deterrent is a worthwhile trade-off from not having the lock-in down the road.

      Instead of looking for industries where they can establish barriers to entry, they have chosen to just be the best in the industry.

      Google has made it their corporate culture to do what we as consumers shoul
  • So is this the Internet where we took a shottie to the Vulcans, or is it the one where Biff found a book about all the World Series back in 1950s?

  • In other news! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Eminence ( 225397 ) <akbrandt@gma[ ]com ['il.' in gap]> on Sunday August 28, 2005 @05:55PM (#13422953) Homepage
    In other news "Microsoft Seeks to Develop Parallel Universe".

  • Coincidence? I think not. (Score:4, Funny)

    by ScaryFroMan ( 901163 ) <scaryfroman@nOSPam.hotmail.com> on Sunday August 28, 2005 @05:55PM (#13422954)
    "GoogleNet" sounds a bit too much like "SkyNet" for my sensibilities. Of course, if any company were to bring about Armageddon, I'd trust Google to do it in the most efficient, user-freindly and non-evil way.
  • Wow this could be cool. Google could offer high bandwidth, secure content unlike anyone else (although at this point this is speculation). Not only could they be an incredible application service provider they could provide nearly endless bandwidth. google is certainly seems to be doing the right things.

  • Google (Score:4, Insightful)

    by CSHARP123 ( 904951 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @05:56PM (#13422968)
    So is Google about to offer free Net access to everyone?

    May be at First. After they have consolidated required market share, charges will apply to anything you do. It is a corporation, you got to think of shareholders and their profits.
    We are seeing another monopoly happening.

  • Occam's Razor (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Saiyine ( 689367 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @05:58PM (#13422981) Homepage

    Couldn't be just that they need cheap conection between their computing nodes?

    --
    Dreamhost [dreamhost.com] superb hosting.
    Kunowalls!!! [kunowalls.host.sk] Random sexy wallpapers (NSFW!).

  • Slashdot chages their minds... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jmcmunn ( 307798 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @05:58PM (#13422984)

    If there is one thing I have noticed as of late, it is the fact that the Slashdot audience as a whole, especially those in charge of posting stories, have had a sudden swing in viewpoint about Google. Now all of the stories about Google have negative undertones, and there's always a hint of disdain in the way the story is worded.

    The gradual making of a new evil entity, and new Slashdot scape goat is nearly complete! We're all being set up to hate Google now. Gotta love it, Google has not charged me for a single thing. They provide me with excellent free email, outstanding search, a nifty map site, and even a suitable chat client now. And how much have I paid them? Nothing. I for one still love Google, say what you want about them buying the world.

    • Re:Slashdot changes their minds... (Score:4, Funny)

      by ScrewMaster ( 602015 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @06:03PM (#13423022)
      Lemming.
      • Who is the lemming? I think this is about it for me in reading comments in slashdot. Really has become too tiresome, with the boring anti-MS blah, blah, blah. And now possibly as the parent suggests, anti-Google blah, blah, blah.

        So long, and thanks for all the fish.

    • Yes and no (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Jeff Molby ( 906283 )
      You're right that the tone has changed, but it isn't completly unwarranted. We like Google for all of the products and services they've offered us (free), but only a fool could watch a business acquire the kind of widespread power and dominance Google is working towards without atleast a little apprehension.

      • Google 'dominance' can evaporate (Score:5, Insightful)

        by The Monster ( 227884 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @06:32PM (#13423180) Homepage
        only a fool could watch a business acquire the kind of widespread power and dominance Google is working towards without atleast a little apprehension
        Hmmm. They have built a business around providing services via open protocols. (Notice that the Google Talk system will interoperate just fine with Jabber clients.) They don't require that you install a program that disables anyone else's offerings. You can still use Yahoo to do searches, Hotmail instead of Gmail for your web-based email account, PriceSCAN instead of Froogle to find bargains. Or you can use those services in addition to the ones Google offers.

        The moment Google 'forks' the Internet, they lose value because less people can use their services. The fact is that Google is one of a handful of companies that knows that they NEED open protocols. They have a corporate culture document that says 'do no evil' because doing evil would detract from their bottom line, and top management wants everybody in the company to know it.

        • Google is in a space where anyone with a better algorithm can raise venture money, like Google did, and enter the search market.

          To strengthen their position, Google has integrated the Ad business via Adwords to not be at the mercy of a third party like everyone else was. Google has done a LOT to strengthen their position.

          However, the one thing Google has NOT ever done, and has made clear that they WON'T do, it lock users in. They do have a bunch of patents to try to keep a new competitor out, but they hav

  • Missing the point (Score:5, Interesting)

    by zappepcs ( 820751 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @05:59PM (#13422992) Journal
    I think that some of us are not paying too much attention. All the buzz lately, in technology communications industries, the USPTO, the FCC, and just about anywhere you turn on the Internet, has been about broadband, wired, wireless, mesh, all kinds of broadband... for Google to buy up a small part of the worlds existing as-yet-unused-broadband infrastructure only means that Google wants to still be relevant in 3 years time. I don't think it means anything more than that... it is what every telecomms company should be doing to ensure relevance in the comming All-IP all the time world.

  • In other news... (Score:4, Funny)

    by nmb3000 ( 741169 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @05:59PM (#13422995) Journal
    Google technicians have lost the ability to administer part of their server farm. It appears that a group of systems has independently begun buying up unused networks for a yet unknown purpose. Wireless access points popping up all over the world with the SSID GoogleNet have prompted some paranoid conspiratorialist to claim an autonomous attack on privacy is underway. Others claim it's a plan create an alternative network, and once completed will overcome and destroy the Internet. At this point Google could levy any access fees they feel like and reach total network dominance.

    When asked for a comment, a Google representative just shrugged and said, "Uhhh, dunno, but if I don't run I'm going to miss my free lunch."

  • Parallel Internet as compared to serialintyernet (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Instead of transmitting data 1 bit at a time, it will transmit 8 bits, so will be 8 times faster.
  • Google Ubiquity.

    GoogleNet sounds soooooo 1982.

  • Google, meet Motorola (Score:4, Insightful)

    by mosel-saar-ruwer ( 732341 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @06:04PM (#13423029)

    Yo, Eric Schmidt* [cnn.com], let me tell you about this little debacle called "Iridium", wherein a once proud US technology titan, name of "Motorola" [you might have heard of 'em - back in the day, they had this bitchin' little CPU called the 68000 series], thought they could dominate [maybe even monopolize] the US communications bidness, by launching a whole mess of satellites into geosynchrynous orbit; invested billions of dollars in the thing, which, at one point, was widely believed to have been the largest privately financed infrastructure expenditure in the history of mankind.

    Care to venture a guess as to the return on their investment? A big fat goose egg, that's what. Actually even less than that, if you factor in the fees that the bankruptcy lawyers must have charged them.

    *It's a real testament to Novell engineering that this moron didn't drive them into bankruptcy, as well...

    • Re:Google, meet Motorola (Score:5, Informative)

      by RevRigel ( 90335 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @06:33PM (#13423183)
      Iridium satellites are not in geosynchronous orbit. If they were, you wouldn't get 'Iridium flares' in the morning and evening when the sun glints off the solar panels of satellites in the constellation. The system was so named because it was originally supposed to have as many satellites as there are protons/electrons in an atom of Iridium, with the constellation resembling the orbits of those electrons. In reality, they launched a few fewer, so it should be named after a different element, but they stuck with Iridium. Iridium largely failed because the implementation was crap. It was analog/voice only, $5000 phones, $8/minute, etc. Now that it's been bought up, people have figured out ways to use Iridium for data telemetry at cheaper rates, and it's actually seeing some use.

      • it was originally supposed to have as many satellites as there are protons/electrons in an atom of Iridium, with the constellation resembling the orbits of those electrons.

        Given that some of the Iridium electrons are s-electrons with zero angular momentum and a certain probability to be at the nucleus, does that mean they actually planned for a few satellites to fall straightly back to earth?
        BTW, I guess the reason they failed is that they didn't manage to properly delocalize the satellites ...

  • I don't quite get the description. It appears that they might provide another avenue for Internet access, and add to existing infrastructure, but how exactly does this ammount to a parallel internet or separate entity from the rest of the internet?
    • Well, given the billions of dollars it takes to be a downstream provider and roll out that last mile, I'd say that most likely it would put them in the backbone business, going head-to-head with the likes of AT&T, UUNet and others. Sure, you could call it a "separate Internet" if you like, but if they want to provide services to people they'll have to connect through the "regular Internet". Unlike existing backbone companies, however, Google would probably have uses for that capacity that have nothing t

  • Wait a second... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Didn't I hear that Google hired Al Gore? Maybe they are making their own internet...

  • Gentlemen, start your .GOO registration engines (Score:5, Funny)

    by ScentCone ( 795499 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @06:05PM (#13423036)
    Why not. Perhaps it's better if all of the Googleness, including all of the breathless press coverage, could be confined to a stand-alone network. All of those that have been Touched By The Googly Appendage will live blissfully within a completely self-containted universe where all news is about, and reported by Google. CommanderToogle's new site, slashdot.goo, will have new and improved moderation choices:

    1) Completely About Google
    2) Mostly About Google
    3) At Least Somewhat About Google
    4) Funny, But Not At Google's Expense
    5) Troogle
    6) Undergoogled
    7) Overgoogled (very rare - can there be too much Google?)

  • Dark Fiber (Score:4, Informative)

    by AndyST ( 910890 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @06:08PM (#13423051)

    afaik, dark fiber refers to a rented optical fiber without any service attached to it, the customer must deal with light transmitters and receivers, as opposed to a fiber that is live with some IP/tunnel/data/whatever service. Dark fiber does not mean "unused".

    • Two Sides to that (Score:5, Funny)

      by infonography ( 566403 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @06:25PM (#13423136) Homepage
      While normal Internet companies use lit fiber Google has turned to the Dark Side. I am not sure how what jives with their Don't be Evil policy but consider the cost savings of not having to use light to transmit data. NO bulbs, no receivers no routers. Just pure net to your door. Perhaps the lit fiber is Evil and Google is showing us the way. Without having to mess with light and it's speed limits our browsers will just fly.

      Most Geeks will attest to their dislike of the Sun (not SUN MICRO), this will work better as public acceptance grows. No more will we have to waste money on Foreign oil to light our internets.

      And most important of all, on a dark internet nobody knows your downloading porn.

  • Maybe if they _do_ form their own seperate network they can implement more secure (thus incompatible) mail protocols.

  • Thinking outside the box (Well sorta) (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bernywork ( 57298 ) * <bstapleton.gmail@com> on Sunday August 28, 2005 @06:22PM (#13423122) Journal
    In all honesty, and it's been talked about already in this topic. That Google is simply buying fibre to connect their networks.

    Now with the amount of fibre they could be buying, why not put up free access points and come up with a good advertising delivery mechanism behind it. Could well be the targetted location based internet advertising that so many marketing companies have wanted to do for so long. "Buy a coffee at Joe's! Mention this ad an get a free donut!"

    As well, could you imagine the communication costs that they are incurring as we speak? The amount of data that would be traversing their network at the moment would be out of control. Why not just buy some fibre now, setup another company to manage it and slash your comms costs? Especially if they are ordering in the hundreds of gigabits of data which I am guessing they probably are (Think about it for a second)..

    Gmail going live, there's another few terabytes worth of data burnt each week having to store all that... All the extra internet content that gets loaded on each day, and they have to index it... Site redundancy.... The lists go on and on...

    So what if they setup a second internet? Let them! If it encourages competition, why the hell not? MCI and AOL and everyone else isn't exactly going to sit on their hands and let their market dissapear in front of them are they?

    In all honesty though, what are the chances of them making a change in business tactic from being a content search facility and marketers to being an internet service provider.. I don't think it fits in with their business model.

    The only thing I think they could be doing is connecting datacentres and possibly (Not having seen WHERE they have bought fibre) they could quite easily be trying to get peering arangements with all the major ISPs to try to distribute the input load onto their network as it could quite well just be getting beyond the point of stupidity and manageability.

    BTW, how much are they paying Akamai at the moment?

  • Change of tone (Score:5, Insightful)

    by NitsujTPU ( 19263 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @06:26PM (#13423145)
    It's funny to watch Slashdot. A single article said Google is evil, now, reading the posts, according to Slashdot Google is evil.

    What was Google guilty of? Raising salaries for software engineers (heaven forbid we should make money comparable to our corporate masters) and draining talent (which just means that people want to work there). Oh, and it's hard to get venture capital because venture capitalists want ideas that can compete with Google. I guess that I'll have to put off getting hired by some lame website that sells toe-nail clippers.

    Get a clue. Seriously. Tell me what they are doing that is evil.

  • The medium is not the message (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Fulg0re- ( 119573 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @06:31PM (#13423168)
    I don't think Google could pull this off, at least at the scale that this article discusses. I doubt that there is enough dark fiber remaining in an amount comparable to even Akamai, one of the largest networks in the world.

    Moreover, I doubt something like GoogleNet could even overtake the Internet as we know it. What I can see, however, is a GoogleNet in terms of a web service combining Google's all over the place software approach into a single unified framework.

    Finally, as usual, I hope Google isn't discounting the presence of Microsoft. Microsoft, has in-fact, the world's largest VoIP and gaming network with Xbox Live, a fact that many people often seem to forget. And to think, it only took them a fairly short while to get it up and running.

  • Google wifi hot spots. (Score:5, Funny)

    by NotRangerJoe ( 856719 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @06:34PM (#13423193)
    Gspot... no?

  • An Isolated internet? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by nurb432 ( 527695 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @07:12PM (#13423382) Homepage Journal
    What if this turns into a 'private' network, with Google in total control

    They control TLDs, they control access, they control content..

    Dont laugh, it could happen.. Remember Compuserve?

  • IPV6? Please Google, just do it. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ubiquitin ( 28396 ) * on Sunday August 28, 2005 @07:16PM (#13423401) Homepage Journal
    This is the best chance we have for rapid world-wide deployment of IPv6. Nobody wants to convert their existing networks, but if you're building out something new, why not? You heard it here first: the entire current internet is effectively just a relatively small subnet in IPv6 address space.

  • Obiligitory (Score:4, Funny)

    by iomud ( 241310 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @08:26PM (#13423709) Homepage Journal
    Yes, but is it an evil internet?

    /me puts pinky to the corner of his mouth

  • welcome (Score:3, Funny)

    by roman_mir ( 125474 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @08:27PM (#13423713) Homepage Journal
    to the dark side.
    Brought to you by
    your friendly neighbourhood
    Google.

  • So what? speculation on ATMs? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by PhYrE2k2 ( 806396 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @08:51PM (#13423828)
    So what I ask- There are millions of private networks out there. Banks and credit agencies own unmeasurable amounts of copper and fibre throughout each and every city you could imagine. Tons of private companies link branch offices all around the globe and datacenters. Country's governments are linking to other governments and other organizations to ensure a reliable transport. The phone company owns tons of fibre and copper. Major Internet providers (MCI, Verison, etc) own large percentages of the global Internet.

    Keep in mind, ATMs (1.5-155Mbit) are very common amoungst all organizations. Over longer distances and in larger volumes (or with growth strategies in mind), fibre is popular as well.

    Google is buying circuts, possibly to build some sort of network. Okay? So what? This is all speculation. Maybe they want to make a reliable link for their own content and databases? Maybe they're doing content distribution? Maybe they want to set up some more links to certain areas and join the likes of MCI, Verizon, etc at the top of the Internet for options that other ISPs could route through.

    Or maybe they are trying to start their own unconnected network... Who knows! But there is NOTHING even remotely unusual about a company buying up private circiuts for its own use. Most big corps have many of them linking offices, dataceters, and various parts of the world.

    NEXT
    -M

  • Google Internet Accelerator for all (Score:5, Insightful)

    by HaggiZ ( 68526 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @09:42PM (#13424043) Homepage
    How's this for a conspiracy theory then:

    - Free/cheap WiFi for all
    - All HTTP requests transparently proxied through Internet Accelerator
    - Content cached, indexed, etc at each of these proxies

    Suddenly the need for regular spidering has been quite dramatically reduced.

  • Google Grid: Epic (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Snowbeam ( 96416 ) on Sunday August 28, 2005 @09:49PM (#13424079) Homepage
    I am surprised no one has brought up Epic or Google 2014 [lightover.com]. The predictions when this came out were cool. Watch for a similarity :-D

  • It's for Torrenting. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by FFFish ( 7567 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @12:15AM (#13424826) Homepage
    Aside from use of this high-speed private network for its own internal database-communications use, and for its nifty new long-distance voice chat toy, Google needs this fiber for its media delivery platform: significant torrent master nodes archiving vast repositories, supplying fat-pipe seeds with data for torrent distribution.

    These fat-pipe seeds will be commercial ventures, perhaps paid by Google for their service; just as we'll pay Google for access to their media banks.

    We won't purchase DVDs of TV series seasons; we'll torrent them, paying a buck or two a viewing, and very likely simply erasing the episode after we're done -- it's cheap enough to get again, and how often does one *really* want to watch an specific episode? Too much new stuff to bother with the old!

    Ditto for computer/console games: download them when you want them, delete them when you're done. Or not: games have good replayability, and the vid companies can make money off a user-pay multiplayer network.

    And, importantly, ditto also for internet memes. Like the Coral cache or Akamai.

    For any popular, largish-file sharing, torrenting is an excellent delivery mechanism for non-realtime use, and Google would stand a very good chance of becoming a dominant "Network Television/Network Radio/Network Bigfiles" company.

  • It is time to review (Score:3, Informative)

    by toolz ( 2119 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @01:12AM (#13425073) Homepage Journal
    Google Future History [broom.org]

  • Fact vs. Speculation (Score:3, Insightful)

    by evilviper ( 135110 ) on Monday August 29, 2005 @05:34AM (#13425945) Journal
    Google appears to be purchasing dark (unused) fiber optic cable across the United States

    This is a fact. Fact's are good.

    with the intention of building its own alternative parallel internet

    This is wild speculation. Wild speculation is bad.

    What's been happening to /. lately? Why must the most wild speculation be treated as reasonable? It's the Apple/x86 thing isn't it? Every crazy "what if" story gets posted, even when alternative and rational explanations are numerous.

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