Google is buying satellites. I don't know about you, but I'm worried. It already has pictures of the pool in your back garden and now it plans to launch at least 16 satellites, which must be as many as we have. This can't be good.
There are people in this office who do nothing much all day, but look at Google Earth and Google Street View (the rest are, of course, playing scrabble). They says things like "oh look another pool". This problem is starting to get out of hand.
Ostensibly according to the Financial Times today Google is getting invovled in this satellite project to help people in people in Africa. I'm not sure why. They don't have pools, they don't even have any water. I could be wrong about the first bit.
But seriously Google wants to give them internet access and has joined forces with John Malone, the cable television magnate, and HSBC to set up something called O3b Networks. That sounds like a cabal and I'm now firmly of the opinion that Google has proved its large bully corporation credentials by throwing its weight about like Microsoft used to do is up to no good. Satellites never spell good stuff. Next thing you know Google is backing George Bush III in his plan to build a new generation of defence satellites it has nicked "the death stars" ("the star wars missile defence system was so old hat," Eric Schmidt told reporters).
Before you know it, Google will have a whole website dedicated to watching African people do stuff. Loads of different kind of stuff. As an incidental benefit some of them might be able to access the internet and realise what Google has done to them.
Larry Alder, product manager in Google’s alternative access group, said the project could bring the cost of bandwidth in such markets down by 95 per cent. “This really fits into Google’s mission [to extend internet use] around the developing world,” he said.
Well that's his story and he seems to be sticking to it.
Gordon Macmillan
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