Google Is Testing Its Own Internet Speed Test In Search Results (thenextweb.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Everyone appears to have a speed test of their own nowadays. Netflix launched fast.com more than a month ago; SourceForge released their new HTML5 speed test soon after. Google appears to want a piece of the action as they are trying out a way for people to check their internet speed by simply typing "check internet speed" into search. The tests are performed by Google's Measurement Lab tools, and were first spotted by Pete Meyers, who posted a screenshot of the feature and discovered a Google Support webpage detailing how it works. The feature has not been widely released yet, but it's possible we'll see it made more widely available soon.

Comments

Re:I doubt legal action.

[tlambert]

I see it as a play to make sure all those ISPs give google a node on their network, so it will continue to be a device to ISP network test. Google can throw the speed test into Android and pretty much guarantee that they have nodes in all ISPs and make it mighty hard for a competitor (search, ads or youtube) to enter the market.

I think your idea is fundamentally flawed.

A single speed test node on an ISP network would have exactly the same effect as the ISP's current configuration of having a speed test node on their own network.

Further, a single Google node or even a full two racks aren't enough to provide local to the ISP's network all of the Google services, let alone all the Google services used by all the ISP's customers. A "unit of Google" is far too large to fit anywhere short of a full datacenter.

Finally, Google actually runs its own Internet, including transatlantic and other undersea fiber lines. The only place it touches the actual Internet is at peering locations, in order to externalize the services it provides to consumers.

So there really is no benefit to Google for the architecture you are suggesting they are trying to emplace.