

Google Launches Web Hosting Disguised As Page Speed Service - processing
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2097831/Google-Launches-Web-Hosting-Disguised-As-Page-Speed-Service

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apgwoz
I'm half joking, but I wonder... is this just a device to run a giant beta
test of SPDY?

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meow
It's more of a CDN than web hosting (like amazon cloudfront).

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redthrowaway
Nice in theory, but with so much content these days being dynamic I can't see
offsite caching relying on Google's crawlers serving you quickly being all
that attractive. The article mentions using them as a CDN, which could make
sense. I'd like to see their proposed use cases before making any judgements
one way or 'tother.

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andybak
I didn't get the impression it was dependent on the normal Google crawlers and
I didn't see any warning about dynamic content.

Maybe it's clever enough to work out what can be cached and grab everything
else on the fly?

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apgwoz
OK. So, on my site, a search request takes 200ms.

Search from me directly (assuming DNS is cached and no lookup is required):

    
    
       You to Me: TCP setup, request send, 200ms, response send, TCP teardown
    

If you get that same thing through Google, assuming they're doing this on the
fly like would be required (same DNS assumption):

    
    
       You to Google: TCP setup, request send +
       Google to Me: TCP setup, request send, 200ms, response send, TCP teardown
       Google to You: response send + TCP teardown
    

There's no way this could be faster. They'd have to precache everything, or
cache static and take the hit for dynamic, in which case, how useful is this
really?

 _edit:_ As the children of this comment suggest, and after some more
consideration, there is certainly some value, and some speed to be gained--
certainly with static content of all varieties.

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Strom
_There's no way this could be faster._

Actually it can be faster due to peering. If you and I use the same ISP, then
your assumption is correct but as soon as we enter the real world, the
services you use often have different ISPs than yourself.

Google can easily have faster & more direct access across long distances than
your local ISP.

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apgwoz
This is true, and very shortsighted of me.

