Google races to speed up the Web

Google is in a really big hurry to make the Web experience faster. That became abundantly clear in 2009, when the company unveiled a steady stream of projects, products, and enhancements focused on increasing Internet speed. The common denominator across the various heterogeneous efforts -- including pushing proposals to revamp aging Internet protocols and lobbying governments for broadband improvements -- is an urgent desire to speed up the Web. This is rooted in Google's deeply held belief that a faster Internet is good for everyone, drives up online usage all around, and boosts the company's business. At first pass, it's hard to argue with this reasoning, particularly when many of the Google efforts are free and available as open-source software, which anyone can adopt, modify and use. Plus, Web latency remains a chronic, thorny problem with many improvement opportunities, and Google has the financial and talent resources needed to lead the way and tackle the bottlenecks.