Word: internetics
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...blog post on Feb. 10, Google product managers Minnie Ingersoll and James Kelly laid out the company's plan to provide as many as 500,000 people in a small number of locales with fiber-optic Internet connections capable of one gigabit per second (Gbps), more than 100 times faster than the typical U.S. broadband connection speed today. It would be a blazing-fast upgrade, capable of downloading a full-length HD movie in under 90 seconds. To be considered for the trial, cities have until March 26 to submit information about their existing networks, with Google planning to choose...
There was no lack of, well, buzz about Google's new Buzz social-media platform last week, but more important were a series of moves that suggest the search giant is ready to take a tentative step toward fixing one of its longest-held gripes: the speed of Internet connections...
...biggest announcement in a weeklong speed blitz for Google. In a Feb. 9 Op-Ed in the Washington Post, Google chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt called for faster Internet connections as a way of narrowing America's "innovation deficit." And on Feb. 11, Google launched a Speed Dashboard as part of YouTube, designed to let users compare the performance of their Internet connections to those of other providers in their neighborhood and around the world. Think your neighbors have faster Internet than you? Now you can confirm your suspicions and weigh up whether it's worth it to switch providers...
...Internet speed isn't a new concern for Google - the company says they've begun taking loading times into account as part of search rankings, and speed was a selling point behind the development of its increasingly popular Google Chrome Web browser. But these are all innovations on the software end; this latest plan goes after the networks themselves. The U.S. is ranked 12th in the world in broadband speed and 15th in the world for broadband penetration. Not bad numbers, but U.S. providers are only now working on the next generation of broadband access, limited to 100 Mbps...
...what's in it for Google? Faster Internet connections could increase consumer appetite for Google offerings like YouTube, particularly as the company has made a cautious foray into the movie-rental business. Services like Google Voice stand to benefit as well, as better speeds could let Google expand the product into a full-fledged VoIP telephone service. But ultimately this might be best read as a bid toward the future. "We want to see what developers and users can do with ultra-high speeds, whether it's creating new bandwidth-intensive 'killer apps' and services, or other uses...