If you are in the ad targeting business, what demographic is going to produces greater yields - kids with no income or people who blindly overpay for shit coffee?
a) Google gives free access to public libraries in cities that get Google Fiber, and,
b) AT&T WiFi services (nee: Wayport) also has McDonalds as a client.
Right?
With this announcement, you can be sure that McDonalds is considering their options. McDonalds competitors may well approach Google, too.
Getting better WiFi into a large chunk of public libraries requires making arrangements with thousands of cities and towns. Getting better WiFi into almost all Starbucks locations in the US requires just one deal with Starbucks. To me, that makes it seem perfectly natural for Google to focus on Starbucks and to reserve their efforts with public libraries for places where they have existing relationships like Google Fiber cities.
Local prop taxes pay most of the library budget here, and why yes, they do have free wifi. And it rocks.
I'm usually logged into ancestry and google docs while I do genealogy stuff with the microfilm machines. Although as more "stuff" goes online over the years, there's less need to use the microfilm machines. I like the historical map collection and the local history reference books. They also have almost a century of phone books, which is interesting.
The announcement talks about kids doing homework. They are more likely to be in the library or McDonalds than starbucks.