Free Airport Wi-Fi -- What's In It For Google?

from Channel Web

Travelers slogging their way through the nation's airports this holiday season are sure to benefit from the free Wi-Fi service Google will be making available in 47 airports between now and January 15.

But maybe not as much as Google, which is subsidizing the Wi-Fi service.

Google Tuesday said that it would provide the free Wi-Fi access through a partnership with Boingo Wireless. Consumers can donate to one of several charities when they log on, and Google will match the donations up to $250,000. Google is already providing free Wi-Fi on Virgin America flights in a promotion that also lasts through January 15.

Google's seemingly altruistic offer should pay big dividends at a time the company could use some goodwill. Here's why:

1. The move will help Google build political capital. Google has long been a big proponent of high-speed, wireless Internet access, lobbying in Washington D.C. to open up a government auction of licenses to provide wireless services to other companies (possibly even Google itself) beyond the mainstream broadband service companies. Google also backs efforts to develop new Net neutrality rules.

2. Providing free airport Wi-Fi also will help Google build up some goodwill among consumers at a time when its reputation could use a little burnishing. Google has been stung in recent months by several highly-publicized failures of its Gmail e-mail service and the controversy over its efforts to digitize millions of out-of-print books. The former has raised questions about Google's reliability and the latter about whether the company is living up to its informal "Don't Be Evil" corporate motto.

3. Subsidizing airport Wi-Fi for travelers will help with Google's brand-building efforts. While one might think Google doesn't need to work on its brand -- "Google" has become a verb to search for something online, after all -- it can't afford to become complacent. Archrival Microsoft has been offering free Wi-Fi at hotspots around the country since September, and Yahoo is now giving away free Wi-Fi in New York City's Times Square.

Google SEO is in no immediate danger of losing its dominant position in the Internet search market: Microsoft's Bing hasn't cracked the 10 percent market share barrier yet, compared to Google's 65 percent share. But you have to wonder whether all those Microsoft TV advertisements showing dazed Google users spouting useless search terms are making people consider alternatives.

'Father of Wi-Fi' Honored With Science Prize

From ABC Science

John O'Sullivan says he wasn't setting out to revolutionise the 

digital age when he started his career in radio astronomy

The inventor of high-speed wireless networks has been awarded Australia's Prime Minister's Science Prize for 2009.

Electrical engineer Dr John O'Sullivan of CSIRO says "it's a real honour" to receive the prize, which was presented at a ceremony at Parliament House in Canberra this evening.

"It's a reflection of all those who have helped me and worked with me over the years," he says.

Wireless LAN, also known as Wi-Fi, allows devices such as mobile phones, lap tops and printers to connect to the internet remotely.

The technology is used daily in an estimated 1 billion devices around the world.

But O'Sullivan says he wasn't setting out to revolutionise the digital age when he started his science career in radio astronomy more than three decades ago.

"We were trying to detect [the radio pulse] of exploding mini black holes."

O'Sullivan says he and a group of researchers were filing through hundreds of metres of 35 millimetre film trying to look for the distinctive patterns of radio pulses.

Fourier Transforms

He decided there had to be a quicker and easier way to filter through the film and so developed a chip, called Fourier transforms, which could process the information more efficiently.

"Fourier transform is a mathematical process that takes a signal, voice or image, and splits it into its constituent frequencies."

O'Sullivan says once the signal is broken down into its frequencies, it becomes far more efficient to process.

While he never found mini-black holes, O'Sullivan's chips became a vital part of modern day computing.

In the early 1990's when portable computers and the internet were just emerging, O'Sullivan and his team at CSIRO started to look at the idea of networking.

"We could see that if you put portable computing together then networking then you really had something."

Wireless Revolution

Wireless LAN had been around since the 1970's says O'Sullivan, but it was very slow, much slower than wired computers.

"We believed the networking had to go as fast as the wires."

O'Sullivan says the problem with wireless networking is reverberation, where the radio waves from the outgoing signal bounce around the surrounding environment causing an echo that distorts the signal.

Utilising their past experience with Fourier transforms, O'Sullivan' and his team build a fast chip that could transmit the signal whilst reducing the echo.

O'Sullivan says it's "incredible" to think of the amount of people using the technology today.

"We thought we were starting something big, but we're blown away at how widespread it now is."