Internet giant Google is offering to cloak its home city in Silicon Valley with free wireless "Wi-Fi" computer service, the company confirmed.

Google's proposal to "unwire the city" will be considered by the Mountain View city council on Tuesday, according to Ellis Berns, manager of economic development in the town where Google has its headquarters.

"Right now, we can't see a downside," Berns told AFP. "It seems like a pretty positive deal for the city."

Berns said his staff studied Google's offer and will recommend it be accepted by city council members. If the deal is accepted, Google will turn all of Mountain View into an Internet "hot spot" by June 2006, Ellis said.

"Providing free Wi-Fi access in Mountain View is one way Google can support the citizens and businesses in the community where we are headquartered," said Chris Sacca of Google's new business development unit. "This proposal is in the spirit of making the world's information easily and quickly accessible."

News source: Yahoo! News

No changelog provided by Ahead Software


There are 37 additional comments
Advertisement
(6 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #1 Posted by lylesback2 on 13 Nov 2005 - 16:43
free internet.. i cant see where the profit comes from in this. but the only winner, is the consumer
Quote this comment #1.1 Posted by DigeratiPrime on 13 Nov 2005 - 16:44
as long as google doesnt turn around and start charging for it, i think its a great deal.
of course google will know your surfing habits even more directly now, but that doesnt bother me.
Quote this comment #1.2 Posted by jeff_pony on 13 Nov 2005 - 16:50
The profit is in building a good name for the brand. Freebies are a good way to do this.
Quote this comment #1.3 Posted by bucko on 13 Nov 2005 - 17:08
I thought when you go on google wireless a bar appears in your browser window. This would probebly advertise its products or somthing. So I read anyway.
Quote this comment #1.4 Posted by ThunderRiver on 13 Nov 2005 - 17:49
You are a fool! Of course they can turn things into profit.. for example, they can use their proprietary VPN and display Google ads while loggin to the network.

Google is currently acting based on its "good faith" there is no telling one day it will backfire.. not to mention that we would depend on its infrastructure for data transmission, so a data snffer is not unlikely at Google's side.

Look at the surrounding companies in Mountain View, such as Yahoo!, Apple Computer, and Intel, industrial espionage can take place "much much easier" whether you believe it or not.
Quote this comment #1.5 Posted by threedaysdwn on 13 Nov 2005 - 21:11
Don't forget Microsoft. We have a campus in Mountain View as well.
Quote this comment #1.6 Posted by Lare2 on 14 Nov 2005 - 12:34
They'll gather information from internet surfing habits, that for some companies is gold and even pay for that kind of info
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #2 Posted by Lasker on 13 Nov 2005 - 16:57
the personal fortune of google owners are in the billions, so if they give to their city free wireless access they are not losing anything, in fact this can be a positive point for their business
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #3 Posted by uceboyx on 13 Nov 2005 - 17:00
profit? positive name for the company, nice move - Google
should've got google all over the world
(2 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #4 Posted by aero9 on 13 Nov 2005 - 17:18
why wont they profit? this is HUGE for them, i was wondering why more people have not done this already,

heres how they will do it,

with this they know where you are, so lets say ur sipping coffee, and google tells you that the shop around the corner has a great sale going on, the shop pays google, for the add, ur happy cause google got u a good deal, its a win-win situtation. many more possibilities....
this will be great,

google please do it here too!!!!!!
Quote this comment #4.1 Posted by dotRoot on 13 Nov 2005 - 20:25
I'd be a bit concerned with my privacy. There's demographics and targetted ads. It would make me a little uncomfortable if I was targetted for ads based on my close physical location (the city scale doesn't bother me though). I'm sure it'll happen someday with RFIDs or something, but there's no way I'd use some wireless service where I'd have to trade my life's privacy.

Then again this is all just speculation. I wouldn't mind being served ads (google adsense isn't bad at all) and some general, anonymous site tracking stats because I'm using their hotspot.
Quote this comment #4.2 Posted by Boston on 14 Nov 2005 - 14:44
I really wouldn't care if Google knew where I was in real life only if they could follow where I was. Maby they can tell what websites are hit and sort it by what area just not by actual users? Who knows but I don't care. Go Google!
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #5 Posted by Louis on 13 Nov 2005 - 17:21
"Where do you live? I live on Google!"
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #6 Posted by markyp23 on 13 Nov 2005 - 17:34
If Microsoft did this, they would be slaughtered for being anti-privacy....

But, good job Google... you're monopolising people's lives! (Heck, I'm not complaining though)
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #7 Posted by theok55 on 13 Nov 2005 - 17:40
I think this would be a bad idea. First of all the states have enough problems with the war. Silicon Valley would be a target because they produce lots of the technology that the military use. If there is free wireless around all of Mountain View ppl will be able to hack from anywhere near the city.
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #8 Posted by ThunderRiver on 13 Nov 2005 - 17:46
Imagine Apple, Yahoo, and Intel employees use free wireless from Google..ahh industrial espionage..
(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #9 Posted by Ravensworth on 13 Nov 2005 - 17:47
What about a free distributed internet, where instead of having ISPs everyone's computers act as, uh...well I don't know how to describe it but I think it would be awesome.
Quote this comment #9.1 Posted by Joshie on 14 Nov 2005 - 05:24
APs/signal repeaters?
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #10 Posted by mr_demilord on 13 Nov 2005 - 18:13
Once upon a time in the late 80's early 90's they told us Internet will be free and everyone has access to it.
(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #11 Posted by Morphie on 13 Nov 2005 - 18:22
that is rad. ISP's are hurting there after this tho. Bam dead, why pay when free wifi from google.
Quote this comment #11.1 Posted by Word on 13 Nov 2005 - 20:26
Some will still pay for the security etc. and others who can't buy a wireless dongle or simply don't know how to set it up.

I also heard that google might be setting up shop over here in Arizona so..hmm..I hope they spread the love.
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #12 Posted by insanekiwi on 13 Nov 2005 - 20:31
i could use some free wifi in my area.
*calls google*
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #13 Posted by darkpuma on 13 Nov 2005 - 20:33
I dont understand how they can do that.... wouldn't that cost them A LOT of money??
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #14 Posted by jivemastert on 13 Nov 2005 - 20:53
i can see this spreading all over the place within the next few years. the only thing holding them back is getting approval. think about it though... their servers give you the internet... but they are most likely going to watch your surfing habits and that way they can direct advertisements towards you in some form or another or sell the information to local advertisers so they can target people based on what they are interested in. this is huge and will churn out ass loads of money for them without a doubt.
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #15 Posted by madnuke on 13 Nov 2005 - 21:42
I bet there is something evil underneath this idea lol
(3 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #16 Posted by oddcrap on 13 Nov 2005 - 21:43
As with everything it will incluse adsense.
Quote this comment #16.1 Posted by todd on 13 Nov 2005 - 22:16
Source? I'm usually skeptical about posts like this.
Quote this comment #16.2 Posted by Word on 14 Nov 2005 - 00:55
Yah, I agree this comment is (most likely) completely without a factual basis. As for everything with them having adsense? Google desktop...Google talk...their home page(granted when you search they show)...Google earth...all seem pretty adsense free to me.
Quote this comment #16.3 Posted by Jugalator on 14 Nov 2005 - 12:44
QUOTE
Source? I'm usually skeptical about posts like this.

Yeah, the boldface as in "here I have this excellent opinion" throws you off a bit huh?
Of course s/he's wrong too; there's plenty examples of AdSense-free Google Services.
(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #17 Posted by todd on 13 Nov 2005 - 22:19
So.. let's say someone is using the WiFi and downloading/uploading some illegal files (not just copyrighted material, but illegal material in general).. It would be nearly impossible to track you down unless you stay in the same position all of the time, wouldn't it?
Quote this comment #17.1 Posted by Word on 14 Nov 2005 - 00:52
I don't think position has anything to do with it...it's just like a wireless network I'm pretty sure they'll want to be able to block certain people out although I can't see how...
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #18 Posted by vet[NFC]Wave on 14 Nov 2005 - 00:58
Reminds me of Minority Report where everything has something to do with advertising. I don't know any other way they would get aroud making money without it really.
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #19 Posted by SoLiD_MasteR on 14 Nov 2005 - 04:26
I wanna move there
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #20 Posted by macf13nd on 14 Nov 2005 - 07:49
can't match their business-technique...
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #21 Posted by the_passenger on 14 Nov 2005 - 19:38
how fast? will it be 256kps down and 64kps up? no thanks.
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #22 Posted by davidtb on 15 Nov 2005 - 12:51
"go ahead, use our conference room, it's not bugged or anything."
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #23 Posted by cylonite on 16 Nov 2005 - 07:40
lol they are not forcing you all to use it. if you do use it, then you have to accept any consequences that follow. you dont willingly jump in front of a speeding truck, and complain when it hits you, do you?
[1]

Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!

Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.


Scroll to the Top
....
My Preferences
....
Communicating with server
Loading
Please Wait...
....
Loading
 X 
....