SEO Blog

Vint Cerf’s move to Google from MCI may mean a lot of things. But according to many, including Om Malik, it’s one more piece in the puzzle pointing at “GoogleNet” - free wi-fi everywhere in the U.S. first, and then eventually around the world.

Telecom insiders, and search industry analysts have insisted for a long time, that judging by their hirings, Google is working on a high-capacity data network. Whether this would be a dark fiber backbone for their own use and increasing data demand, or whether it reflects a new business opportunity, is not evident.

While a dark fiber network would help them reduce costs, it would only be 100% effective if they could become the direct point of contact with the consumer. Do that, and they’ve eliminated the middleman, and their fees.

That’s where the concept of Google using a backbone network to support a free ad-based WiFi network comes into play.

Separately, there’s been a lot of discussion about Google’s need to expand its revenue model, to add new initiatives which continue to increase its reach, but also broaden its footprint, so that they can better sustain market peaks and valleys. We all know that advertising revenue from existing models won’t continue to grow forever, the question is how to build on it and extend that growth as long as possible.