网络搜寻巨人Google公司本月20日证实，已开始有限度地测试一项免费的无线互联网网络服务，称为Google WiFi。
Google WiFi提供短距的高速互联网网络联机服务。早在今年7月间，一家硅谷报纸即披露这项消息，如今已在Google网页公告上获得证实。 Google发言人Nate Tyler说，目前的测试局限于靠近Google加州山景城总部的两个地点--披萨店与健身房。
Tyler说：「Google WiFi是拥抱社群的项目，在本公司总部所在地附近提供免费的无线访问。」他说：「现阶段，我们的开发重点是搜集使用者的意见回馈。我们会视产品的演进情况，决定下一步怎么走。」
提供免费的无线通讯服务，会让Google进一步朝搜寻本业以外的领域扩张，加入与互联网网络联机供货商和电信公司竞争的战局。 Tyler表示，此项目起初只是某位Google工程师「花20%时间的项目」。Google鼓励工程师把20%的工时投入于独立研发的项目。多项Google的新产品就是衍生自这些工程师的「副业」，包括Google News、上下文广告计画AdSense，以及社交网络测试项目Orkut。
Google网站只约略提及Google WiFi，未提供详细的细节。有一个网页提到某项称为 「Google安全存取」(Google Secure Access)的产品，旨在「建立更安全的Google WiFi联机」。
今年4月，Google已和新创公司Feeva合作，在旧金山的Union Square购物商圈推出Wi-Fi热点。 圣荷西水星报7月报导，要取用免费的Google Wi-Fi服务，使用者必须在笔记型计算机上安装思科公司方安全网络软件及Google的工具列。 接下来，Business 2.0杂志8月报导，Google正考虑在美国建构一个宽频网络，能根据使用者连上Wi-Fi网络的地点，发送锁定目标的特制广告。这篇报导令人揣测Google Wi-Fi服务即将推出。 该杂志指出，Google据说已收购数年前电信泡沫破裂后残余未用的高容量光纤网络。Google则响应，这些收购行动是自然的，毕竟该公司经营的是日益扩张的大型网站。
Google拒绝讨论规模更宏大的项目。
近年来，Google业务迅速朝网络搜寻之外的市场扩大版图，8月才刚推出Google Talk实时传讯与网络电话服务。分析师关切，Google可能偏离搜寻老本行太远。 「我认为，就策略而论，这绝对是有道理的，只是对Google的盈亏影响如何，就不得而知，」Jefferies & Co.分析师Youssef Squali说。
Google begins limited test of Wi-Fi service
By Adam Pasick
Tue Sep 20, 4:06 PM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Google, the online search leader, confirmed on Tuesday it has begun a limited test of a free wireless Internet service, called Google WiFi.
The existence of the Wi-Fi service, which offers high-speed connections to the Internet over short distances, is confirmed by public pages on the company's Web site and was first reported in a Silicon Valley newspaper in July.
Google spokesman Nate Tyler said the current test is limited to two public sites near the company's Mountain View, California, headquarters -- a pizza parlor and a gym -- located in the heart of Silicon Valley.
"Google WiFi is a community outreach program to offer free wireless access in areas near our headquarters," Tyler said.
"At this stage in development, we're focused on collecting feedback from users. We'll determine next steps as the product evolves," he said.
Free wireless communications would take Google even further from its Internet search roots and move it into the fiercely competitive world of Internet access providers and telecommunications companies.
Tyler said the project was started as part of a Google engineer's "20 percent time project."
Google encourages its engineers to spend 20 percent of their work time developing independent projects. Several of Google's new products have grown out of such projects, including Google News, contextual advertising program AdSense and social-networking test project Orkut.
The Google Web site has several references to Google WiFi but provides few details. One page (http://wifi.google.com/faq.html/) refers to a product called "Google Secure Access," which is designed to "establish a more secure connection while using Google WiFi."
The company has already launched a sponsored Wi-Fi "hotspot" in San Francisco's Union Square shopping district in April with a start-up called Feeva.
In July, the San Jose Mercury News reported that in exchange for using the free Google WiFi service, customers would be required to load a copy of Cisco's secure network software and Google's "toolbar" program on their laptops.
Speculation about a forthcoming Google WiFi service was stoked in August following an article in Business 2.0 magazine, which argued that the company was considering building a U.S. broadband network capable of targeting specific advertising to users based on the location of their Wi-Fi.
As evidence, the magazine pointed to what it said was Google's purchase of unused, high-capacity fiber-optic network connections left over from the telecom bust earlier this decade. Google responded saying that such purchases were natural for a company with one of the larger Web sites.
But the company has declined to discuss its broader plans.
Analysts have voiced concerns that Google could extend itself too far beyond its core business, while acknowledging that its vast financial and engineering resources could produce results.
"Becoming a service provider would be quite a stretch for Google, but considering the billions of dollars Google could throw at the problem it could become a reality," Ovum analyst Roger Entner wrote in the wake of the Business 2.0 article.
Google, which is rapidly expanding beyond its core Internet search service, introduced an instant messaging and Web telephone calling service called Google Talk in August.
Its shares were up 1.5 percent to $308.30 in trading late Tuesday afternoon on the Nasdaq exchange.
"I think strategically it absolutely makes sense but its profit and loss impact remains unclear," said Jefferies & Co. analyst Youssef Squali.
(Additional reporting by Sinead Carew in New York and Eric Auchard in San Francisco)