Google DNS For The Greater Good? - The UpStream

Google DNS For The Greater Good?

posted Sunday Dec 6, 2009 by Jon Wurm

Google DNS For The Greater Good?

Before you read through this article I want you to think of something related to the internet. It could be anything. Now I want you to think about if Google is planning to do that harder, better, faster and stronger....the answer is yes and now that Google has set it eyes on DNS (Domain Name System) services they aim to interject themselves in yet another level of your internet experience. For those of you not familiar with DNS it is basically a service your browser uses that translates URLs into the web address where the servers are at. This enables the browser to get pages, e-mail clients, send e-mail to the right place etc. In a recent statement Google implied that it's involvement in DNS services will be for the greater good of the Googlenet, I mean Internet.

The DNS protocol is an important part of the web's infrastructure, serving as the internet's phone book: every time you visit a website, your computer performs a DNS lookup. Complex pages often require multiple DNS lookups before they start loading, so your computer may be performing hundreds of lookups a day.

Making DNS faster and more secure is certainly welcomed since most ISPs have little interest in developing it. That is except for Comcast who is looking to turn DNS into a profit generating machine by trying to get DNS protocol changed to inject ads in failed DNS lookups all over the net. It could be that Google is just trying to protect us from ISPs like Comcast or it could be just another way to collect information even though they advocate to limit the information they keep and share what they learn about streamlining DNS with the rest of us. That would be much easier if their DNS project was open source but I'm sure they have their reasons.

It is also important to realize that your ISPs DNS and Google DNS aren't your only choices. Services like OpenDNS offer fast and secure DNS services for free and they have already been around for about four years. They pride themselves with the customization their service offers that extends far beyond Google's They have also recognized Google's entry into the market.

It's not clear that Internet users really want Google to keep control over so much more of their Internet experience than they do already - from Chrome OS at the bottom of the stack to Google Search at the top, it is becoming an end-to-end infrastructure all run by Google, the largest advertising company in the world. I prefer a heterogeneous Internet with lots of parties collaborating to make this thing work as opposed to an Internet run by one big company.

If you want to give Google DNS a shot then set your network controls to IP addresses 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 and let us know how that works out since Google won't be running our DNS anytime soon. For more information you can also check out the Google Public DNS website.

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