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Project Loon

google.com

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Re: Project Loon

#241

Post by mathattack »

pizza wrote: post #22
simonsarris wrote: post #12

"I love those who yearn for the impossible." -Goethe I wish other large companies showed such ambition. Telecoms like AT&T can't even be bothered to roll out the network upgrades they promised in the early 2000's.

Minor nitpick: AT&T has done a shit-ton of research: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Labs edit: apparently a different beast than today's AT&T

Bell Labs is long gone, and existed to appease the government about a monopoly.

This is about BIG thinking enabled by the unique org structure. Everything about corporate governance says this is a bad structure. But they still might pull this greatness off!

Re: Project Loon

#242

Post by rlamptey »

Amazing idea, but then the rest of the world (non-americans) are still worried about the implications of this for PRISM. Getting the rest of the world online is cool, but then the NSA gets to have access to their data,that's not cool and I was beginning to like Google!

Re: Project Loon

#243

Post by TeMPOraL »

shahar2k wrote: post #132
jfoster wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Autonomous cars, too.

autonomous cars mean people can be on the internet while driving.

I think the phrase "to be on the internet" is going to finally loose its meaning soon. With everything around you (and on you) connected to the global network, you'll be on the Internet all the time. Just as you have your eyes and ears open all the time.

Re: Project Loon

#244

Post by TeMPOraL »

Heliosmaster wrote: post #156
dag11 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But I feel like that would make the media -- followed by average people -- go crazy. Consider the current NSA news combined with "Google puts hundreds of cameras in the sky".

And what happens when "Google puts thousands of cameras on our faces" ?

Well like if you didn't have a camera in your pocket for years. Or like cameras hidden in pens weren't available cheaply for years. Seriously, the time for people to be scared of others recording things is has already passed (mostly unnoticed).

Re: Project Loon

#246

Post by TeMPOraL »

mtdewcmu wrote: post #136
unono wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4 million balloons and routers would cover earth. That's actually not a lot compared to how many cars and cellphones are manufactured every year. If each one is $100 dollars, the total cost is only 400 million - less than google fiber installed in kansas city ($1 billion).

Google is a business. They're only going to spend big money on a project if they expect to make a profit. Even if it might be possible in theory to provide coverage to the whole world via balloons, you'd have to be willing to lose a lot of money. From the standpoint of philanthropy, you would most likely get more benefit per dollar in other ways. For instance, the Gates Foundation has spent a lot in Africa on fightin…

> Google is a business. They're only going to spend big money on a project if they expect to make a profit.

People say this as if this was a law of physics. It's not. The company buildings will not spontaneously combust if they try to do something that is not calculated to make optimal short-term profit. They prove, time and again, that they care about awesome/worldchanging more than they care about the money. As someone pointed out in other thread, they even structured their stock options so that grumpy shareholders who care only about short-term profit can't get in the way.

Re: Project Loon

#247

Post by TeMPOraL »

LoganCale wrote: post #11
ekianjo wrote: post #10

Project Loon to bring NSA Spying to Everyone :)

While the geek in me acknowledges this is an awesome project and I'm really glad to see them giving it a try, the sarcastic cynic in me had the first thought that this was a great way to bring the the remaining 2/3 of the world under NSA surveillance.

Wasn't "NSA's free access to Google data" debunked, like, 3 days ago? Why people still keep talking like they give away all the data?

That's the problem with mass media. Not only a lie spreads faster than the truth, it's also the only thing remembered after the dust settles.

Re: Project Loon

#248

Post by mbesto »

ChrisNorstrom wrote: post #19

It's fascinating to see how well Google has branched out. It started as just a search engine competing with Lycos, AltaVista, & Yahoo and yet they didn't just stop, they kept going. They built all these new services & products around their core product (search) and it's paid off tremendously. It's definitely something to model future companies off of. When you win the race, don't stop, keep running.

It's fascinating to see how well Google has branched out. It started as just a search engine competing with Lycos, AltaVista, & Yahoo and yet they didn't just stop, they kept going.

This project is not a branching out. This is what happens when it's cheaper to expand your market (create the pie bigger) than trying to cutting into market share (take a bigger bite out of the pie).

Driverless cars is no different.

Re: Project Loon

#249

Post by grappler »

In light of the whole surveillance issue, how to approach the matter of foreign balloons drifting in and out of the airspace of many different countries? Can they steer around countries that want no part of it?

It doesn't take too much imagination to envision balloons doing things like taking high-res photos and videos, collecting all manner of signals from communications equipment, radars and other military equipment, or even carrying onboard weapons. Basically the same things drones do.

How can they assure skeptical people and governments that these balloons aren't carrying something extra in addition to their statued misson?

Re: Project Loon

#250

Post by rayiner »

simonsarris wrote: post #12

"I love those who yearn for the impossible." -Goethe I wish other large companies showed such ambition. Telecoms like AT&T can't even be bothered to roll out the network upgrades they promised in the early 2000's.

Most large companies don't have the financial flexibility that Google's near-monopoly on search offers. Lots of ten-billion per year in revenue companies are eking out 5% margins in extremely competitive fields and can't afford to be distracted by ambitious projects. AT&T is locked in tight competition with Verizon in a very capital-intensive market, and can't afford to divert capital to blue-sky projects.

Back when AT&T was a monopoly, we did see innovative projects like this come out of them. At the turn of the century, linking everyone in the U.S. with phone lines was a pretty blue-sky project. The AT&T phone network was a marvel of engineering of the time. And of course Bell Labs gave us tons of innovations.

That's the beautiful thing about being in a market where you're not scraping around in the dirt trying to claw out the eyes of your competitors.

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