We will call him GoogleNet

In November of 2005 I was attending the Pubcon conference listening to Keynote Speaker Robert X. Cringely when he said something that really sparked my ear (in a otherwise pretty boring speech). He talked about Google and how they were going to change the world. He talked about how they had been buying dark fibre for a year and how they were going to build what he was calling “GoogleNet”. A super fast fibre optic network that stretched across america with caching servers that would deliver the internet to us at an amazing speed…. and price. He talked about how the new internet “delivered by Google” would probably be FREE supported by ads and interstitials and a pro ad version (ad free) would be available for a price. It sounded interesting… and he had some facts to back it up but…. whatever…. Maybe someday we can get sharks with frickin lasers… or a pool with a ShoeMoney logo. I thought it had some legs though and I quoted his GoogleNet theory to our investment advisor who was telling me and my wife we were ignorant to be buying so many shares in Google’s IPO. While 5 years ago I did believe GoogleNet could be possible I did not have any idea how Google would just get started… anyway… Yesterday afternoon Google announced their 1gb fibre network. But how are they going to really get this thing legs? Thats the one thing I was still puzzled on… until today. Well its easy. They are going to use you. Thats right… YOU. If you want this in your city you need to tell them why. And also encourage your city officials to work with Google (basically give them amazing subsidies so they can do it for free or for as low cost as possible). This marketing strategy is brilliant. and its going to work. Can you imagine if Google can have the same impact on the ISP industry that they have made in the Webmail (gmail), Analytics, Maps, Mobile Phones spaces? Maybe Time Warner will start to deliver a quality service…. Ahhh doubt it…. Go Google.