An Ever Impatient Google

from the how-fast-do-we-need-to-surf dept

Apparently the folks at Google felt that their broadband connections were just a bit too slow. Accelerator technologies are nothing new. They've been around for years, though, usually focused on the dialup market, which has resulted in some lawsuits for false advertising when companies have claimed that accelerators create broadband speeds on a dialup connection. However, Google, apparently, feels that even broadband connections should be accelerated, and has launched an accelerator offering, which they claim works on broadband connections as well. It appears to work in a similar manner to most accelerators. Lots of caching and compression, basically, along with some "pre-fetching" of linked pages. It seems like there are two reactions to this technology. First, is surfing broadband really that slow? It's hard to see this being all that beneficial to most users (Google's "time saved" click notwithstanding). The second reaction is the same reaction that seems to come out with just about any new offering out of Google: privacy concerns. That's an awful lot of data that Google now gets access to. Combined with Google's desktop search and autolink feature, expect plenty of hand-wringing about what Google might do with all that info -- though, again, no one is forcing people to use these technologies. In the meantime, cheap dialup provider, United Online probably chose a bad day to announce their own improved accelerator, as it's likely to get buried in the coverage of Google's offering.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Willis, 4 May 2005 @ 10:36pm

    Big problem with accelerator - not privacy

    So, I've been using an ad blocker for a while http://www.everythingisnt.com/hosts.html). It basically gives me a list of ad servers, and then directs my computer to a null directory when anything from those ad servers is requested. This has worked very well for the last year or so - until I installed the Google Web Accelerator. After installing, I actually thought that my web experience was slower, which didn't make any sense - until I noticed an annoying Flash ad, on a website I frequent. Apparently it acts as a proxy, which I think messes with my list of ad servers. I'm a bit bummed out - I really liked the idea - but seeing as it's actually slowing the web for me, I can't use it any more. If they fix this, I'll check it out again.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous of Course, 5 May 2005 @ 10:51am

      Re: Big problem with accelerator - not privacy

      Webwasher "classic" from webwasher.com
      is freeware from the nice folks at siemans
      computers.
      Sometimes I have to switch it off and forget to
      turn it back on. Then when the blinking text, animated gif files and other associated rubbish fires up I remember to turn it back on. Also works on web bugs, some naughty javascripts and other assorted web page related ills.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Dudu Mimran, 5 May 2005 @ 2:45am

    Google taking power from Microsoft

    A different angle on this move by Google - Google taking power from Microsoft. Dudu

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    bt, 5 May 2005 @ 6:36am

    No Subject Given

    I too, have, overall found that the Google tool does not speed things up since "The return of the ads" takes away any speed benefit that may have been garnered.

    However, one very interesting side effect. Using the Google Web Accelerator with the MS Firewall Clinet allows me to bypass Websense and acceess blocked sites from inside the corporate firewall.

    Either tool by itself does not do this, but together, everything is reachable.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Anny1Wiliams (profile), 19 Sep 2021 @ 1:51pm

    An interesting article, by the way, if someone is interested in where young startups can realize themselves, then you should definitely read reviews about accelerators on the Review platform https://revain.org/categories/accelerators
    Thanks to these reviews, I found a wonderful accelerator for myself, which brought together young and progressive people who wanted to change the world.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.