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."

Comments

Aaaah! That explains it.

[Chocolate Teapot]

I was wondering why this poll has not been replaced in nearly two weeks. The /. editors are waiting till the Google Wifi comes online so that they can add another option ...

[*] I live in Mountain View, you insensitive clod!

Just wait till the Bay Area wireless comes online and that poll choice will make the others pale into insignificance.

Note to Google

[scsa]

Don't forget, your European HQ is in Dublin, Ireland. Can we have free Wifi too please?

I think I get why

[Dark Paladin]

You could say it's about advertisements. After all, the more people on the Internet, the more people searching Google, so the more money they make, right?

But there's another side, and depending on how they do it, it could either be interesting or scary. I'm betting on the Interesting, but -

With this service, Google will be able to track where everyone in this service goes, and then sell that data to others. Odds are, this would be like Tivo does it: track trends and report anonymous information. So if someone wants to figure out that people who watch "Monster Garage" also watch a lot of "Veronica Mars", they can throw up some he-man car adds on the later show to try and capture those eyeballs.

In the same way, Google could sell anonymous research data to other firms. Something like "people who tend to visit Slashdot also tend to visit digg.com, news.google.com, etc". They don't have to give out individual "this person searched for this", but just trends - even searchable trends, like saying "these web sites reported on this item, and here's what the breakdown of those people who went to that site or searched for that item visited".

Far more effective than the questionaires of "what computer gaming sites do you visit?". With Google providing the access, they can just tell the marketers directly.

Anyway, this is just my opinion. I could be wrong.

Re:I think I get why

[MrNonchalant]

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.

What is this was Microsoft?

[dbolger]

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 ;)

Re:What is this was Microsoft?

[HungWeiLo]

Microsoft is providing free Wifi access in Marymoor Park in Redmond.

Re:What is this was Microsoft?

[dbolger]

Of course, you know this is just so they can gain a stranglehold on the wi-fi market in that area. Typical MS, always out to crush small business.

Re:Why?

[evil agent]

If you connect to Google's WiFi, then they know where you are. Then they can target you with location-specific advertising.

Re:Why?

[ozydingo]

Probbaly more than that, too; they'll most likely keep a database of what ip addresses visit which sites how often, thus further boosting their ability to taget people with specific ads.

Re:Why?

[TheCreeep]

Now this could be the mother of all targeted advertisments. Immagine yourself in a park in Mountain View surfing the web with on your laptop when you see a google add like "Fancy a hot, seamy, cup of coffe? Try Peggie's place around the corner."
Or looking at some AMD benchmarks with an add telling you the nearest hardware shop.
That would rock!

SF already has free Wi-Fi

[max born]

San Francisco has had free Wi-Fi for quite some time. I had the pleasure of meeting Ralf Muehlen, one of the primary contributors, when I donated equipment to the project last year.

What's interesting is that there's no reason why a lot of Internet access shouldn't be free. We don't pay a service charge for broadcast radio and television. There's an argument that Wi-Fi should be more like HAM radio -- you buy your equipment and your're online. Developments in mesh networking, especially where it's possible to relay through multiple nodes could help make this a reality. Of course we'd still need the wired backbone.

Of course there are a lot of special interests working against this. Not least, the FCC (backed by the current fee based providers) who are adamant about keeping power limititation extremely low for the ISM unlicensed spectrum. Of course the cell phone compainies have no problem blasting at thousands of times more power than we can. But that's life in politics I guess.

Be interesting to see how this plays out in the next few years, especially with the advent on 802.16.

Please get in touch with someone from sflan if you can contribute bandwidth, equipment, or technical expertise. It's a really good cause.

Re:SF already has free Wi-Fi

[evilviper]

We don't pay a service charge for broadcast radio and television.

You don't because the broadcasting company has paid, instead of making you pay... With something like satellite TV/Radio, you DO pay a service charge.

There's an argument that Wi-Fi should be more like HAM radio -- you buy your equipment and your're online.

Ham radio works because the very low-bandwidth signals can be transmitted across the globe without any infrastructure.

For the internet, someone will have to pay. That mean's everyone's tax dollars. You'll still be paying for the internet, and people who don't use the internet will also be paying for it. Everyone gets the same crappy level of service, and those who max out their connection constantly still only pay as much as those who never use it at all.

Inexpensive wireless technologies promise to make internet access faster and much, much cheaper... but not free.

Re:Hmm.. next news item

[Dogtanian]

Microsoft Offers Free Wi-FI to Redmond, Wa

Pfft. That's nothing; some nice people called "Linksys" already offer free unregulated wireless broadband in *any* large conurbation. Don't believe me? Just turn on your laptop wherever you go and I guarantee you there'll be an open access point with the SID "Linksys".

Lovely people.

Re:Why?

[Decameron81]

"If you connect to Google's WiFi, then they know where you are. Then they can target you with location-specific advertising."

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.

Re:Why?

[TheRaven64]

They grab location info from wherever they can as it is. You may have noticed if you've connected from a university IP block that you get adverts specific to that university's home town. Simiarly, if you use Google Maps, then the places you look at are used as source data for a short while - I used the maps place to find the way from my girlfriend's house to the nearest Apple Store, and the next time I searched for restaurants it prioritized ones close to where I was. Quite neat really.

Re:San Francisco Wi-Fi

[ievans]

I live in San Francisco, and not a day goes by that I don't see a cackling criminal hellbent on destruction, twirling his mustache, about to cause untold carnage with a firearm, only to be thwarted by a civilian carrying a legal, licensed handgun. It's truly a sight to behold. The only thing keeping San Francisco from turning into Lagos is the vast handgun toting populace, not the police, not the legal system. And now we've gone ahead and ruined it.

It'll be just like the veritable river of blood that is...London, England.

Disclaimer: I voted against the handgun ban, but give me a break.

Permanent Records?

[cyphercell]

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.

Naive Question

[Adrian Lopez]

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?