abdulhakeem
21-09-05, 03:32 PM
By Michael Bazeley
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Mercury News
Posted on Wed, Sep. 21, 2005
Speculation that Google wants to blanket the Earth with free WiFi ratcheted up Tuesday after Internet users discovered software on its Web site that allows access to a service called ``Google WiFi.''
The downloadable software creates a secure WiFi connection to select Google ``hotspots'' in the Bay Area.
Google representatives would not discuss the company's long-range plans regarding WiFi, or ``wireless fidelity'' technology for high-speed Internet access. But observers said offering WiFi access might fit in with Google's plans to find new ways to serve up ads and entice people to use its search-related services.
A Google spokesman said the Web pages (http:// wifi.google.com/faq/) relate to an experiment begun this summer to offer free, secure WiFi to some Silicon Valley establishments.
Two WiFi hotspots were established in mid-summer near the company's Mountain View campus, one at Kapp's Pizza Bar and Grill and one at Airborne Gymnastics. A Google representative said the software discovered Tuesday has been available since the start of that experiment.
Google has also sponsored a year-old free WiFi hotspot in Union Square in San Francisco and another at the San Francisco Public Library, both in partnership with San Francisco start-up Feeva.
``We don't have other announcements of any other hotspots,'' said Google spokeswoman Sonya Boralv. ``At this point, we're testing these limited locations.''
Boralv did not know whether the WiFi-related Web pages on Google's site were new or not.
Outsiders have been speculating about Google's WiFi plans in earnest lately, especially after the publication of a Business 2.0 magazine story in August that suggested that Google wants to build a massive broadband network.
The story was based on Google's relationship with the Union Square hotspot and the fact that Google has been buying up massive amounts of unused fiber-optic cable, once used by telecommunications companies that collapsed.
Others believe that Google intends to use its network to deliver video content to its users.
Jupiter Research analyst Julie Ask said Google's involvement in WiFi would make sense. WiFi providers can determine the location of their users to within about 300 feet, offering many opportunities to customize the type of content users see based on their geography.
``The potential for local search and local advertising comes into play,'' Ask said.
Feeva, for example, sells software that lets businesses target ads and other online content based on geography.
The free WiFi software that Google has available on its Web site, called ``Secure Access,'' is intended to be used on Google hotspots, but it may work elsewhere. The Windows-only software connects to Google's virtual private network (VPN) server and encrypts information that travels to and from a user's laptop computer.
A Google engineer developed the service after recognizing that ``secure WiFi was virtually non-existent at most locations,'' the company Web site says.
Google is not the first to offer secure WiFi access. Companies such as JiWire and HotSpotVPN do the same.
The fact that WiFi traffic at Google hotspots moves across Google servers could raise privacy concerns. But the company said on its Web site that ``Google is careful not to store any of that information except as noted here.'' Exceptions include ``some information from your Web page requests.''
``We do this to understand how Google Secure Access is being used and to improve our services,'' Google's privacy policy states.
The company also ``does not log cookies and strips potentially sensitive query data from the end of requests to help better protect your privacy.''
Contact Michael Bazeley at mbazeley@mercurynews.com (mbazeley@mercurynews.com) or (408) 920-5642, and read his blog at www.siliconbeat.com (http://www.siliconbeat.com/).
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/technology/12701277.htm
http://www.miami.com/images/common/spacer.gif
Mercury News
Posted on Wed, Sep. 21, 2005
Speculation that Google wants to blanket the Earth with free WiFi ratcheted up Tuesday after Internet users discovered software on its Web site that allows access to a service called ``Google WiFi.''
The downloadable software creates a secure WiFi connection to select Google ``hotspots'' in the Bay Area.
Google representatives would not discuss the company's long-range plans regarding WiFi, or ``wireless fidelity'' technology for high-speed Internet access. But observers said offering WiFi access might fit in with Google's plans to find new ways to serve up ads and entice people to use its search-related services.
A Google spokesman said the Web pages (http:// wifi.google.com/faq/) relate to an experiment begun this summer to offer free, secure WiFi to some Silicon Valley establishments.
Two WiFi hotspots were established in mid-summer near the company's Mountain View campus, one at Kapp's Pizza Bar and Grill and one at Airborne Gymnastics. A Google representative said the software discovered Tuesday has been available since the start of that experiment.
Google has also sponsored a year-old free WiFi hotspot in Union Square in San Francisco and another at the San Francisco Public Library, both in partnership with San Francisco start-up Feeva.
``We don't have other announcements of any other hotspots,'' said Google spokeswoman Sonya Boralv. ``At this point, we're testing these limited locations.''
Boralv did not know whether the WiFi-related Web pages on Google's site were new or not.
Outsiders have been speculating about Google's WiFi plans in earnest lately, especially after the publication of a Business 2.0 magazine story in August that suggested that Google wants to build a massive broadband network.
The story was based on Google's relationship with the Union Square hotspot and the fact that Google has been buying up massive amounts of unused fiber-optic cable, once used by telecommunications companies that collapsed.
Others believe that Google intends to use its network to deliver video content to its users.
Jupiter Research analyst Julie Ask said Google's involvement in WiFi would make sense. WiFi providers can determine the location of their users to within about 300 feet, offering many opportunities to customize the type of content users see based on their geography.
``The potential for local search and local advertising comes into play,'' Ask said.
Feeva, for example, sells software that lets businesses target ads and other online content based on geography.
The free WiFi software that Google has available on its Web site, called ``Secure Access,'' is intended to be used on Google hotspots, but it may work elsewhere. The Windows-only software connects to Google's virtual private network (VPN) server and encrypts information that travels to and from a user's laptop computer.
A Google engineer developed the service after recognizing that ``secure WiFi was virtually non-existent at most locations,'' the company Web site says.
Google is not the first to offer secure WiFi access. Companies such as JiWire and HotSpotVPN do the same.
The fact that WiFi traffic at Google hotspots moves across Google servers could raise privacy concerns. But the company said on its Web site that ``Google is careful not to store any of that information except as noted here.'' Exceptions include ``some information from your Web page requests.''
``We do this to understand how Google Secure Access is being used and to improve our services,'' Google's privacy policy states.
The company also ``does not log cookies and strips potentially sensitive query data from the end of requests to help better protect your privacy.''
Contact Michael Bazeley at mbazeley@mercurynews.com (mbazeley@mercurynews.com) or (408) 920-5642, and read his blog at www.siliconbeat.com (http://www.siliconbeat.com/).
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/technology/12701277.htm