Google races to speed up the Web

IDG News Service - Google is in a really big hurry to make the Web experience faster.

That became abundantly clear in 2009, when the company unveiled a steady stream of projects, products and enhancements focused on increasing Internet speed.

The initiatives varied widely in scope and focus. They included optimization tools for webmasters to improve Web site performance. Others were speed-focused products like the Go programming language and Chrome OS. Google also pushed proposals to revamp aging Internet protocols and lobbied governments for broadband improvements.

The common denominator across the various heterogeneous efforts is an urgent desire to speed up the Web. This is rooted in Google's deeply held belief that a faster Internet is good for everyone, drives up online usage all around and boosts the company's business.

"The benefit of speed improvements is very substantial for the overall Internet. In the end, as the Internet gets faster, we benefit because people will use it more, which hopefully means they'll do more searches, which gets us more revenue," said Urs Hölzle, a Google fellow and senior vice president of operations.

At first pass, it's hard to argue with this reasoning, particularly when many of the Google efforts are free and available as open-source software, which anyone can adopt, modify and use.

Plus, Web latency remains a chronic, thorny problem with many improvement opportunities, and Google has the financial and talent resources needed to lead the way and tackle the bottlenecks.

"Google can afford to develop these projects in a way that's going to be strategic," said Sheri McLeish, a Forrester Research analyst. "Google has a luxury most companies don't. They're running a very successful business and what we're seeing is what that success affords them."

Still, as Google advances aggressively with its speed initiatives, it also indirectly increases its already considerable power and influence over people's and organization's Web activities, raising so-called "Goog-zilla" concerns.

For example, in early December, as part of this overall speed initiative, Google launched a new system to resolve DNS (domain name system) queries. It said its product improves on existing DNS resolver technology with faster, more efficient caching and additional security safeguards.

The thing is, those who switch to Google Public DNS will let the company know which Web sites they're visiting. This adds to the already massive amount of user data Google has access to via its search engine, online services and applications.

"Google definitely sees itself as being in a position to influence the future direction of the Web. From a business strategy perspective, it's smart of them, because clearly they're a major beneficiary of Web traffic," said Hadley Reynolds, an IDC analyst.