It seems like Google might really be planning some sort of WiFi service. You can read the article to get what few details are available. I've said before that if their plan is to drive more traffic to Google in order boost advertising then it's a mistake. Unlike King Gillette who pioneered the "Give away the razor, but sell the blade" model of business, this is "Give away the razor and the blade but sell advertising on both." This is the same poor logic that lead to the free PCs in the late 90's.
But, perhaps Google has more subtle and interesting ambitions. Here's a quote from Vinton Cerf who was hired by Google a couple of weeks ago to be their "Chief Internet Evangelist":
Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf identifies mobile mapping as an area of interest in his new job as Google's chief Internet evangelist. "Geographically indexed databases are going to be extremely valuable over time for people who are in mobile operations," Cerf said in an interview last week with TechWeb.
If Google's WiFi ambitions are designed to further their "Geographically indexed databases" then this might be worthwhile. It'd be great to just type "ATM" into your Google search box and get a list of the closest ATMs to you, or Hospital. Presumably, people won't be searching for "HotSpot" they way they do now.
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