October 1st, 2005
Google citywide San Francisco Wi-Fi : one giant leap for AdWords, AdSense
Funny, I thought something was up when I noticed a photo posted of Google’s Wi-Fi service in and around New York City’s Bryant Park. I even blogged about it.
Now here I am on Saturday night, and a story crossed the AP wire about Google being one of the bidders to connect the entire city of San Francisco with free Wi-Fi service.
Apparently, this initiative is one of several such proposals on the desk of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.
Google spokesperson Nate Tyler said on Saturday that the company doesn’t have any plans to operate Wi-Fi outside the San Francisco Bay region.
"Unwiring San Francisco is a great way for Google to support our local Bay Area community," Tyler told the Associated Press. "It is also an opportunity to make San Francisco a test-ground for new location-based applications ad services that enable people to find relevant information exactly when and where they need it."
Oh, can you imagine the phalanx of Google sales types that will fan out over the SF area hitting merchants with Google AdWords and AdSense opps once such a network is enabled?
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
