Google Owns You. Want Them To Own Even More?

How’d you like your Internet connection to run faster? No special tools or software to install, no cost. It’s free. Really!

Sort of.

Last week, Google introduced yet another tool that you’ll find helpful. Everybody’s favorite beneficent search engine will now host your DNS queries. It’s free. It takes only a few seconds to set up. And you will get improved Internet performance, especially on search requests and video streaming.

Oops . . . make that Google search requests and Youtube video. Your Mileage May Vary on everything else.

Some quick geek-talk: DNS is the part of the Internet that makes it so when you type www.answerguy.com or http://answerguy.com into a browser, it know where to take you. Your Internet provider keeps records of all the information, and uses those records to direct you. But you don’t have to use their records; you can point at anyone’s. And now Google will do it for you. If you have a smaller internet provider or one focusing elsewhere you’ll likely gain more than if you get service from a Cablevision or a Verizon, but the point is that you can gain a little speed by using a better DNS server. And Google’s is very good.

Here’s the conspiracy-theory part of the game: what if Google tweaks its DNS machine to make searches pointed at Google-owned properties run just a little faster than searches for everyone else? Or even if they don’t do that on purpose, isn’t it likely that the way Google’s servers talk to each other will make that just . . . happen?

Business change comes in many forms. You’ve already learned that sometime “free” isn’t free, but now you get to decide whether “so free you can’t tell the difference when we extract payment” matters, too.