Google Quietly Launches Google Wifi - Free Urban Wifi   9/20/2005 - 1,224 views,

Actually, the FAQ page for the Google Secure Access program is presently the only public page on the Google site which is readily available and which alludes to Google Wifi. It explains that “Google Secure Access allows you to establish a more secure connection while using Google WiFi”, and that Google Secure Access “can currently be downloaded at certain Google WiFi locations in the San Francisco Bay Area.”

Those locations, according to sources, are limited to the previously reported Google Wifi spot in San Francisco, and a pizza joint and gym near Google headquarters in Mountain View, California. Which, I’m guessing, are favourite hang-outs for the Google engineers involved with the Google Wifi project. In fact, according to Google, Google Wifi started out as one of the “20% projects”. (Google encourages their engineers to spend up to twenty-percent of their work hours developing independent projects.)

So what is the roll-out plan for Google Wifi? According to Google spokesperson Nate Tyler, “Google WiFi is a community outreach program to offer free wireless access in areas near our headquarters,” adding that “At this stage in development, we’re focused on collecting feedback from users. We’ll determine next steps as the product evolves.”