[kwlug-disc] DailyTech - Concerned About Privacy? You're Probably up to no Good, Says Google CEO

[Paul Nijjar]

On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 09:02:36AM -0500, Kyle Spaans wrote:

> > Speaking of Nefarious Google, has anyone tried their public DNS? IP
> > addresses of 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, real easy to remember.  I pointed my
> > router there yesterday, but I've experienced no observable difference
> 

> My friend benchmarked Google's vs his ISP's name servers and
> "noticed" a savings of a few milliseconds per request! (Wowee!) So I
> guess it depends on what your reaction time is like. :P
> 

Given the transfer times from websites, I don't think response time is
a good reason to go to Google DNS. People come up with these timings
and I totally don't get why it is relevant to use the fastest DNS you
can. Isn't "fast enough" good enough?

I surprised myself last night by realizing that I don't mistrust
Google DNS as much as I mistrust pretty much everything else they do.
At least I can come up with a plausible explanation for this service:
Google hates ISPs and is fighting them in the Net Neutrality wars.
Whether through incompetence or malice, ISP DNS servers already mess
up lookups for certain websites (hello Rogers!). So maybe a
well-publicized DNS server that behaves like a real DNS server keeps
the ISPs honest. (Or maybe I'm just rationalizing the nefariousness.)

Also, I find it interesting that Google's credibility decreases among
the tech geeks every time they release a new app. 

- Paul