A Global Game Of Telephone Invents The Google Telephone Network

from the yeah,-sure... dept

Most of us are familiar with the kid's game "telephone" where you get a bunch of kids in a line and the first one whispers something to the second one and they whisper that to the third one, and it goes on and on until it reaches the end of the line, where the final kid announces what he heard. Of course, the end result is usually nothing at all like the initial word or phrase. Somehow, you get the feeling we might be watching a global game of "telephone" when it comes to the rumors swirling around Google's so-called telephone network. It started out with a small job posting from Google (on, of all places, Yahoo's job boards) saying they were looking for a "dark fiber" negotiator. There are plenty of reasons why Google might want someone with those skills, but what fun is life when you can't jump to conclusions. The sharp eyes at Light Reading picked up on it and mentioned the job posting in passing. From there, CNET found the story causing the speculation to spread all over the place. However, no one seemed to have any definitive answers until now. The Times Online in the UK has announced, definitively, that the only possible reason why Google might be searching for such a person is because Google "is set to launch a free telephone service that links users via a broadband internet connection using a headset and home computer." The Times does not appear to have a shred of evidence to actually support this claim, other than the job posting, and some random speculation from analysts. However, they seem quite sure that there could be no other explanation for the search for dark fiber. It seems that the Times may be a victim of a big internet-based game of telephone, interpreting bits of information that passed from site to site to conclude that Google is somehow about ready to launch their own phone system.