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Google Offers Free WiFi for Mountain View, CA
Patik writes "AFP reports that Google is offering free wifi internet access to all 70,000 residents of its headquarter's hometown, Mountain View, CA. Google expects the entire city to be covered by next June. Basic access will be free while Google retains the right to charge for premium services. This comes after Google made a bid to provide free access for all of San Francisco (pop. 744,000) two months ago, although that city is still considering the bid."
I thought you guys were the champion of the mom & pop ISP...
When I first saw this, I thought "gee, Google's providing free net access - good for them". If this had been Microsoft, I would have been more likely to think "damn Microsoft - instant monopoly. Bastards". I actually didn't think about that until an earlier poster mentioned MS above.
;)
Whatever you feel about MS/Google, its interesting to see how having a "don't be evil" rather than a "make lotsa money quick" mantra from the outset colours people's view of any plans you put forward in later years.
Or maybe I'm just easily brainwashed, who knows
How can google profit from this venture? The article doesn't say what kind of "premium services" they are going to charge for, but I wouldn't see what services the average google-wifi user will pay for that the non-google wifi user won't.
If you connect to Google's WiFi, then they know where you are. Then they can target you with location-specific advertising.
End transmission.
This will be a good thing for community relations. Some companies sponsor the local sports clubs or arts groups. This is another way.
It's also on slashdot, NBC, Yahoo and all sorts, giving lots of PR.
It might also yield some results as a social experiment.
All this for what cost? Bandwidth for 70,000 people and setting up a few hundred hotspots. Maybe a million bucks a year? Sounds like a good deal to me.
True, they could sell it. But they could also data mine it for their own purposes. Right now they have a limited portion of any user's activity, after they disappear off of Google.com it's anyone's guess what they do. Imagine just how much the Google engineers would love to have access to entire browsing histories for thousands of users that is months long. All uniquely identified by their MAC address and/or login credentials and location tracked to within a few hundred feet based on which AP they're accessing. Any data miner worth their salts would love to get their hands on that. Like a giant maze with several thousand live rats. And who better to use that data.
Google could:
1. Identify emerging trends and buy into them.
2. Serve more targeted ads (AdSense).
3. Offer location based services (Dodgeball).
4. Improve search results.
5. Sell the data.
They get more benefits than just that though. By offering their WiFi service for free they are investing on their image. They are telling people that Google cares about them. Many people think that it all comes down to making money today whatever it takes, but Google's stance goes more along the lines of maintaining their reputation and gaining people's trust. Sometimes at the expense of short term advantages.
And not only this is good for us, it's even better for Google to be perceived as a friendly company in a pool of sharks. No wonder they are what they are today.
diegoT
Who would you rather do business with? On one hand, you have the company that brought free internet to the huddled masses. On the other, the big evil company that not only caused your Grandma's credit card number to get stolen, but also happens to be the Devil's liaison on Earth.
Remember: do no evil.
Not that either company is all bad or all good. Furthermore, the bigger Google gets, the more they'll begin resembling Microsoft. As Google becomes more and more information thirsty, I can't wait to see the information-wants-to-be-free-but-privacy-is-a-god
It'd be nice to live in Mountain View, though.
Hey, I don't know about the rest of you but Google's just about got all my info pegged down. Gmail stores my records, I'm always logged in so my search history is right there. With google home page they have the weather of the town I live in, my favorite news feeds and they know I like the vocabulary word of the day front and center. My bookmarks section is minimalist, but most telling are links to other free email accounts. They know who my contacts are, they know who I invite to gmail.
Has it ever occured to anyone that gmail is the most comprehensive (I think "pay for" MSN gives you three total addresses) email account that by nature gathers statistical relationship information on the users at SIGNUP. Gmail's signup record is a complete model of that whole six degrees of seperation theory. As it is, when I google Pr0n I Log the f*ck out; I have to; my search history is used for my search results. I use my Google home page at school (college) I do not want to get kicked out of a lab for Googling fsck. Most importantly I do not want pr0n based ads showing up everywhere. I have kids remember.
With free internet service provided by Google I would be totally on record no ifs, ands, or buts about it; they would be able to say "hey this guy doesn't like Pr0n showing up on his search history, lives in (insert town, state, and address here), must have had a divorce last year, oh there it is his lawyer's email is xxxx@gmail.com, is a student, has kids, frequently uses google for spelling help (determined by a misspelled word searched and no results clicked, common search pattern -posts online a bit maybe), and many other things I can't even fathom,etc...".
I love google they do a great job but it's a corporation, corporations are notorious for screwing people when they can, a corporation is a business entity that is held accountable for people's actions, that business entity is by nature psychopathic. I find this service wraps up google's statistical sources and Google seems intent on KEEPING their information FOREVER, so long as they can legally get away with it. I know the terms of gmail when I signed up, and I know how to avoid what I don't want. I like it that way.
Under the influence of Post-Cyberpunk Gonzo Journalism
I haven't been keeping up with new technologies, so here are some naive questions:
1. Is it possible for more than one WiFi router to cover a given hotspot?
2. If so, how would the client choose which router to use?
3. How many routers could occupy a hotspot before service is seriously harmed?
I'm wondering about the implications of Google offering free WiFi service along with a paid premium service. Would a different provider be able to provide competing services for the same area?
"In prison you just have to shut your eyes and take it. Here you have to shut your eyes and give it."