Slashdot Mirror
Google Looks to "White Space" Spectrum
Nerdposeur writes "After maneuvering the major carriers into agreeing to open access rules via the recent spectrum auction, Google appears to be looking into a new area of spectrum that could provide internet connectivity. 'In comments filed with the Federal Communications Commission, the Internet leader outlined plans for low-power devices that use local wireless airwaves to access the 'white space' between television channels. A Google executive called the plan 'Wi-Fi 2.0 or Wi-Fi on steroids.' Interestingly, Google has Microsoft, Intel, and others on their side in this one. Was this spectrum their target all along?"
Get your biggest competitor for bandwidth to spend all of their money on the spectrum you don't want by executing a feint in that direction, and then taking over the spectrum you really wanted.
It's almost like someone who reads those business books that are based on military strategy actually figured out how to apply the military concepts to competition...
In fact, as people have become more skilled at gaming Google, and Google is the only show of note in town, search has actually got worse.
Oh I don't know about that. They went through a stage search returns being buried in junk pages. That's gone now, or substantially so. Certainly I no longer have the problems I used to.
You're sort of making the assumption that the internet is static, so google aren't moving.
What's really happening is the internet is a constantly seething morass of junk, exploits, and bot created pages who's sole intent is to gain control of your machine. In the face of that I'm surprised google still manage to sift through the shart and produce useful results.
This article http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/04/what-has-google-done-in-search-lately.html disagrees with you. It may be from last year, but I've seen other search related features show up on that blog.
In fact, that blog is on my list and it seems like they are always coming up with extras to add into their search. Little extra things you can click on when the search results in a stock symbol or dated item.
Also, have you taken a look at Google labs experimental search?
I'm not saying some competition would be good, but it isn't as stagnant as I think you would make it out to be. This link http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/03/faster-google-search-on-your-mobile.html shows another more recent search improvement they've done recently