Is Google Building An Alternative Internet? By Jim Hedger © 2005, StepForth News Editor StepForth Placement Inc. Google is working on its most ambitious project to date, the creation of a global data transfer network that could effectively serve as a private Internet. Since the introduction of AdWords three years ago, Google has become the world's largest media company and advertising vehicle. It has grown to rival Microsoft in scope and scale. The process has made it a fully globalized corporation. Google has an estimated $7billion in the bank and employs many of the brightest brains in IT. It also has a reputation for being one of the best tech firms in the world to work for and has been known to use that reputation to headhunt intellect from its rivals. It is focused on the burgeoning Chinese market and appears to be performing better there than its chief rival Microsoft is. Google has the obvious capital and intellectual resources to do just about anything it wants to. There are a number of reasons backing speculation that Google is building its own global digital communications network. Google has formally entered the telecom business with the release of a VOIP client known as Google Talk. VOIP is an acronym for Voice Over IP, which is a synonym for Internet telephone. In order to provide this service Google has had to acquire technical and physical resources that, along with other assets held by the company, point to the construction of an alternative Internet. As Microsoft has so ably demonstrated over the past twenty-five years, there are a number of profitable ventures found in a space monopolized by a single mega-corporation. If that is the path Google is taking, building the infrastructure to capitalize on it would be considered the crucial but difficult first step. Over the past ten months, Google has been purchasing a large quantity of redundant fiber-optic lines, (commonly referred to as dark-fiber), in cities around the world. This fiber was laid during the boom years of the late 1990's but left surplus after the dot-com crash in 2000. Speculation about Google building an alternative Internet has been circulating since early January 2005 when Google started buying and accumulating lots of dark-fiber. Telecommunications industry news-source Light Reading today reported on some of Google's recent real estate acquisitions. Google is leasing large amounts of floor space in or near major telecom interconnection facilities such as the recent leasing of about 1/10th of the rentable space at 111 8th Ave in New York, one the world's largest telecommunications interconnection hubs. It is also said to be in negotiations for large amounts of space at enormous co-location centers (known as carrier hotels) on the west coast, with the goal of linking Google's North American and Asian networks. In early 2005, Google began issuing RFP notices to relevant tech firms for the development of a DWDM fiber optics network. The RFP process ended earlier this month and Google is currently reviewing bids from multiple tech vendors. Google is said to be planning to first establish a network in North America and then connect it with similar networks established in Europe and Asia. The construction of such a network could give Google the ability to deliver multiple branded media such as music, video, online telephone and other Internet services to every home in the United States. DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) is a technology that exponentially increases the carrying capacity of fiber optic cables. According to an article in yesterday's IPMedia Monitor (sub req.), only a handful of the largest telecommunications providers operate commercial DWDM networks. A small number of private DWDM networks exist but few are large enough to need such capacity. Google's need for bandwidth capacity is increasing rapidly. It currently pays the traditional telecom firms like AT&T who own the long-haul fiber lines a premium for bandwidth. Building its own data transfer network could be seen as a cost savings solution, especially as it could cost as little as $100millïon (in new spending) to construct one. Google already owns fiber throughout North America and around the world. It just needs to connect it all together. Once connected, what could Google possibly do with a homebrewed state-of-the-art fiber-optics system? It could develop the kind of exclusive branded environment AOL originally dreamed of. It could capitalize on its recent innovations to provide life-service technologies such as Google Talk (VOIP) and interactive information resources such as local search alerts and the delivery of news, video and music files. According to the IPMedia Monitor article, "... those who have reviewed the RFP say that Google's plans extend far beyond cost-saving motivation, with an architecture that puts a Google-controlled hub deep within all major metro areas." Google's stated goal is to organize the world's information. A big part of that goal is to turn a profït while doing so. Google turns a very tidy profït each quarter but has long been seen as too reliant on one kind of income, paid search advertising. Google draws between 90 – 95% of its revenues from paid ads. The development of a Google operated data transfer network would give Google any number of ways to expand the number of productive revenue streams from 1 to 1+ more. Then again, Google has always prided itself on its ability to organize the world's information and provide it frëe of charge to its users. The cost of Google's services is borne by the advertisers. Google might simply be exponentially increasing its online real estate inventory by enticing hundreds of millïons of new registered users to take a look at whatever it is they are creating. Assuming it is the coolest thing on the block when released and is faster and cheaper than its competitors (as most of Google's new products tend to be), many of those new users will choose to stick around to use the services offered by a Google branded network. Google appears to be preparing to become the world's greatest data delivery vehicle. Perhaps this phase of Internet history will be summarized with the neo-business aphorism, "If you can't beat them and you can't join them, you can just make your own reality and make lots of monëy over there." Google has $7big in the bank, much of it being investor monëy. From all accounts, it is preparing to light up and connect millïons of miles of dark fiber, starting in North America possibly as early as the first quarter of 2006. Today we wire America. Tomorrow we wire the world. On Saturday, we'll do brunch. About The Author Jim Hedger is a writer, speaker and search engine marketing expert based in Victoria BC. Jim writes and edits full-time for StepForth and is also an editor for the Internet Search Engine Database. He has worked as an SEO for over 5 years and welcomes the opportunïty to share his experience through interviews, articles and speaking engagements. He can be reached at: [email protected]. note: I didnt write this article, I found it, and I thought you guys mb interested.
yeah well what will the consumer gain from this i mean owke now we have Microsoft as a monopoly who is forcing there software down everyones throat (i use linux moehahahaha) and when google takes over MS's position it will probably be the largest company and if u want good support everyone will use GOogle software the fact that google is setting up there own sort of Internet disturbes me cuz atm it is so that no one owns the internet, internet belongs to the people jus like the planet we live on belongs to everyone. I think google ar trying to find new ways to gain money, Dont get me wrong i like google i would jus hate to see us pay for sumthin other than the internet connection which is already a high bill if u want a highspeed connection. im not saying that google will charge for sumthin else than the connection to internet i would jus h8 to see it come to a point were we are forced to do so
Uh, the internet DOES belong to someone. Someone has to be there supplying the bandwith for everyone to use. The article itself said that Google leases its bandwith from AT&T. Telecommunication companies own the internet; they're the ones who supply all the cables and necessary servers so that you can have websites up and running. Then they lease servers/web space to your yahoos and googles and tripods and what not, who in turn lease their already leased web space to your average personal-website-creating homeboy. Well, it'd probably be no different from what you have now. You can get slow dial-up connections for real cheap, then you can get faster internet for more money, then you can get access to music downloads and what not if you pay more by subscribing to specific sites on the web (of course, assuming you're talking about legal ways to download music/videos/etc.). Assuming Google pulls it off, then they'd probably provide a badass internet service and charge decent money for it, in which case it'd be something like a next-generation AOL or NetZero or something like that: internet connection + perks. But yeah, Google is definitely planning big things. The release of Google Earth alone has me astounded...if you check out big cities in the US, you can pretty much zoom in to a point where you can see cars parked clearly on the street, and this is all supposedly achieved through satellites updating stuff in real time.
no d00d internet belongs to noone i agree that the telecomcompanies provied a connection to the internet but they dont own internet, internet belongs to everyone becuz other than paying for the connection and a couple of sites u need to pay to see content most sites wont make u pay for visiting
Cant wait.Every product that google has come out with of is affiliated with is usually top notch stuff.I would have unprotected sex with google I trust it that much
They own the internet, because if they decided to shut their services down for whatever reason they wanted, then none of us would have internet anymore.
always thought google would take over the world eventually they have alot of power under all those 'o's in there name
well basically, when someone says that no one owns the internet, the person means no owns the whole internet and all the intellectual property, all the sites, all the servers, all the hardware, and all the thing that make up the internet. there was this whole debate in the 90s that if someones owns the internet they would own the world? BUT, no one owns the internet in that sense. there is no company, person or organisation that can say that they own the internet. some companies can control it, but no one owns the entire internet. after all the internet is a network of data, files and infomation all conected to each other. no ones owns that.
