Those Google folks are putting out one innovation after another. This time it’s Web Accelerator’s turn. Is this yet another byproduct of their 20% personal time policy?
This is very different from the prefetching feature I wrote about before, as all pages are accelerated and not just search results. Also, with the Web Accelerator, Google’s network infrastructure is used to provide caching, compression and up-to-date checking services.
Too bad it’s Windows-only.
(Via Steve Rubel.)
Update: Mike Lambert has an interesting opinion on Google’s motives behind giving out all that bandwidth for free:
Instead of using a random surfer model, Google can use a real surfer model, based on the aggregate web traffic of the people using their Web Accelerator. They can discover /exactly/ how the Google Juice should flow in the real world.
This is incredibly useful, clever and simple at the same time. I wonder why nobody has come up with this solution before.
