I saw somewhere that Google might be building their own Internet.

I suspect a lot of firms would like to do this, but few have the resources.

Anyone have any thoughts on this ? Not you, Bill ;-)

Because they're buying all that "dark fiber" ? I'm not sure you could build another Internet from dark fiber.

I pass loads of dark fibre every day. Do you think I could sell it to them?

Yeah, the "dark fibre" thing sounds interesting. I assume they're getting a good deal.

Google wants all your data. that means moving zetamasses of data to move around the globe, fast. Dark fibre is dirt cheap from all the glut poored into the ground in the 90's. Liting it up has become cheap as well ...

Imagine GoogleDrive. You're HD is just a asynchronous cache. Windows Vista installed on GoogleOS serving a GoogleDrive c:\. Now Google owns the concrete floor. They basicaly reverse the table on MS. But man, that would require big pipes, right?

I don't think they'll be able to buy enough to provide that much bandwidth. It must be something else.

Sounds like a good way to set yourself up as an ISP to me, as well as a telecom company. VOIP, etc.

I think Aaron is getting warm there. There has been rumors of Google buying Skype as well.

> set yourself up as an ISP to me, as well as a telecom company. VOIP, etc.

I think I know what you're saying, but my brain isn't quite connecting the dots. Are you implying something like the following may be in Google's plans:

- Buy up dark fiber.
- ??? Partner with existing carriers ???
- Telecom access on your network. Which would include:
  a. data access.
  b. a phone number.
  c. storage.
  d. targeted advertisements.
  e. a teleporter.
  f. free 30 day trial of Chris McKinstry's Jargonizer.

s/Telecom access on your network/Sell telecom access on *their* network

The US government does this too, no big deal. Just a seperate network. ATT probably has the 411 on all kinds of networks, I only know of the military one.

Jared, I don't think they'll buy Skype, as they just launched GoogleTalk, so it is no longer required. They might want the customer base, but I bet they can ramp up to a few million pretty quickly.

Yeah, but the rumors can indicate a direction.

Maybe all the dark fiber is for a special Google VoIP network that will sound better than Skype. Aside from the usual serving up billions of pages a day, including pages with tons of thumbnails, what bandwidth requirements does Google have? Why would they need their own fiberoptic lines?

It's not like they're paying for the bandwidth on the local level, so it's unlikely they want it for that. It's probably to reduce lag between cities.

Wasn't there a rumor of Google serving up video too? I guess those could be served as normal pages, but anything streaming could really benefit from their own fiberoptic lines.

Nobody needs their own fibers in a sufficiently open and competitive market, but there comes a point at wich you can have it cheaper this way.

Maybe they're not going to use it for anything other than tying together all their far flung server farms.