It’s not exactly a surprise that Google wants to be involved with everything that has to do with the Internet, even marginally, and so far it’s been building towards this goal. From the front end, the web browser and now even a dedicated operating system, to the very basics of Internet communications, the HTTP protocol, Google has its hands on everything. Now it’s taking it one step further by launching its own DNS service, Google Public DNS, which it says can be faster and safer than the ones provided by the ISPs or the other DNS providers.
The vast majority of users aren’t even aware what DNS (Domain Name System) is, not to mention why they would want to switch to Google’s offering. In a simplified view, DNS translates domain names like www.google.com into IP addresses which is what computers and networking hardware use to identify themselves in a network environment. Regular, everyday web browsing involved hundreds, even thousands of DNS lookups, but these are handled by the ISPs, most of which provide their own DNS services, so the process is invisible to the user.
“The average Internet user ends up performing hundreds of DNS lookups each day, and some complex pages require multiple DNS lookups before they start loading. This can slow down the browsing experience. Our research has shown that… (read more)