On the surface, this seems a bit crazy, but dig deep and it starts to make a lot of sense. Business 2.0 is reporting that Google is buying up a whole lotta broadband cable, which opens up a myriad of opportunities for the search giant.
The article says:
For the past year, [Google] has quietly been shopping for miles and miles of
"dark," or unused, fiber-optic cable across the country from
wholesalers such as New York�s AboveNet. It’s also acquiring superfast
connections from Cogent Communications and WilTel, among others,
between East Coast cities including Atlanta, Miami, and New York. Such
large-scale purchases are unprecedented for an Internet company, but
Google’s timing is impeccable. The rash of telecom bankruptcies
has freed up a ton of bargain-priced capacity, which Google needs as it
prepares to unleash a flood of new, bandwidth-hungry applications.
These offerings could include everything from a digital-video database
to on-demand television programming.
Checkout the entire article here.
When you think about what something like this could mean for society, as well as Google, it becomes pretty mind boggling.
Imagine the numbers of Americans logging in everyday to their free Web connection, seeing a Google homepage each and every time.
Inner city neighborhoods and America’s less fortunate would have affordable access to the Web.
Ads could be served with startling accuracy based on locality and personalization. Google would save millions in overhead. Whew.
It’s Google’s world. We’re all just visiting.
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