Google to Offer Free Wi-Fi?

meaning writes "Business 2.0 reports on the possibility of Google building a national broadband network and giving Wi-Fi access to everyone in America. From the article: 'So once the GoogleNet is built, how would consumers connect for free access? One of the cheapest ways would be for Google to blanket major cities with Wi-Fi, and evidence gathered by Business 2.0 suggests that the company may be trying to do just that. In April it launched a Google-sponsored Wi-Fi hotspot in San Francisco's Union Square shopping district, built by a local startup called Feeva. Feeva is reportedly readying more free hotspots in California, Florida, New York, and Washington, and it's possible that Google may be involved.'"

Comments

Now

[JonN]

these are the real times we will all need a tinfoil hat. Who knows how Google will broadcast ads using a nationwide network of Wi-Fi

Re:Now

[garcia]

The displaying of ads while surfing are the least of your tinfoil problems if you are using someone else's free wifi.

They are already building business listing databases and reviews via Dodgeball, they are building HUGE databases based on your e-mail with GMail, and I can only imagine what databases they could build w/free wifi.

Finally - private companies, not government

[acoustix]

This is what I've been waiting for: private companies providing free access instead of tax payers paying for it.

Capitalism does work!

-Nick

Re:Hmmmm....I don't get it

[FuturePastNow]

1. Offer free wi-fi
2. Offer free search
3. Guarantee that every human being who uses them will see ads
4. Massive profit

Fixed it for ya

TANSTAAFL

[sheldon]

There's an old saying... The most expensive gift you can get someone is a Free Puppy.

Similarly speaking... I'm not sure I can afford to get "Free" Wi-Fi access from Google.

I'm just a whee bit tired of being innundated with advertising, and the cost of product purchases going up to pay for all of it. You know, I'd be willing to spend a little bit of money to just get the things I want and need, rather than paying for everybody else to get stuff they never asked for.

I doubt this will save much money for google.

[NickCatal]

From what I understand, Google already pays next to nothing for transit. It seems like everybody peers with them anyways. If anything they are using the new dark fiber to link up their datacenters and for internal uses to ensure that they can get more data to the enduser with less hassles. Google Earth alone has to eat up an insane amount of bandwidth.

Re:Pricey?

[anthony_dipierro]

The thing that bugs me is the entitlement mentality that some have about this. If it is "WiFi" then it should be free.

I think the mentality is that if it's the internet then it should be free. This is due to the fact that that's how the internet was designed. Of course, free in this sense means that there aren't any payments between peers in the system. When MIT connected to Harvard neither of them paid each other for the privilege, but they both had to share the cost of the wires.

Now with WiFi there are no wires. There's still a cost, since it takes energy to broadcast a signal, but we still call it "free".

Here's something interesting...

[Fortyseven]

...wifi.google.com. Yes, it returns an error. But the host resolved, as opposed to, say, porn.google.com.

Interesting.