When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. - Hunter S. Thompson

21 September 2005

Google begins limited test of Wi-Fi service

Google begins limited test of Wi-Fi service - Yahoo! News
Google, the online search leader, confirmed on Tuesday it has begun a limited test of a free wireless Internet service, called Google WiFi.

The existence of the Wi-Fi service, which offers high-speed connections to the Internet over short distances, is confirmed by public pages on the company's Web site and was first reported in a Silicon Valley newspaper in July.
So what does it all mean? SWAGs (Scientific Wild-Assed Guesses) abound:
Speculation about a forthcoming Google WiFi service was stoked in August following an article in Business 2.0 magazine, which argued that the company was considering building a U.S. broadband network capable of targeting specific advertising to users based on the location of their Wi-Fi.

As evidence, the magazine pointed to what it said was Google's purchase of unused, high-capacity fiber-optic network connections left over from the telecom bust earlier this decade. Google responded saying that such purchases were natural for a company with one of the larger Web sites.
Related: Google Secure Access (apparently related to their WiFi efforts)

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