Google Windows Web Accelerator

[george]

Google Windows Web Accelerator

http://webaccelerator.google.com/

System Requirements

Operating System: Win XP or Win 2000 SP3+

Browser: IE 5.5+ or Firefox 1.0+

Availability: For users in North America and Europe (during beta testing phase)

Press Release:

Google Web Accelerator significantly reduces the time that it takes broadband users to download and view web pages. The Google Web Accelerator appears as a small speedometer in the browser chrome with a cumulative "Time saved" indicator.

Here's how it works. A user downloads and installs the client and begins

browsing the web as she normally would. In the background, the Google Web

Accelerator employs a number of techniques to speed up the delivery of

content to users.

--Webmasterworld 2005-05-05

[waldwolf]

.....In the background, the Google Web Accelerator employs a number of techniques........

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

These are the sort of things which keep me awake at night.

(Yes.....I admit it..... I'm a little paranoid. )

cheers

[kreon]

on 2bangkok today!

http://webaccelerator.google.com/

New Google's proxy defeats Thai web censorship - May 6, 2005

Google' s new Web Accelerator is also a proxy that appears to defeat Thai ISP blocking of various websites. At least for now...

[mouse]

New Google's proxy defeats Thai web censorship - May 6, 2005

Google' s new Web Accelerator is also a proxy that appears to defeat Thai ISP blocking of various websites. At least for now...

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! They read this too.

[Explorer]

New Google's proxy defeats Thai web censorship - May 6, 2005

Google' s new Web Accelerator is also a proxy that appears to defeat Thai ISP blocking of various websites. At least for now...

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! They read this too.

[kreon]

New Google's proxy defeats Thai web censorship - May 6, 2005

Google' s new Web Accelerator is also a proxy that appears to defeat Thai ISP blocking of various websites. At least for now...

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! They read this too.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

and they read 2bangkok too!!!!!

[monty]

Downloaded it, and one thing it doesn't do is circomventing censorship.

Any censored page still gives me the Thai censor page.

Am using Ji-net which links me to http://www.mict.go.th/ci/block.asp

when I try to access such pages...

Maybe with other providers it works, I do know that on Loxinfo you get another page when blocked, something from the Police department...

Anyway, I still have my ways getting to the sites I need

[kreon]

anyone downloaded this as yet!!!

its working great, reckoned my download(adsl) speed increased by +/- 20%

and can access about half of my previous blocked sites again

Edited May 6, 2005 by kreon

[Abandon]

you shady shady folk ... what web sites are you trying to visit that are blocked ??? I never yet had one that was blocked, and judging from the friends of mine that always get themselves virussed up, they visit very shady sites indeed. This blocking of sites is a real bonus for the good, honest folk (like myself) who always get called by people to de-virus/ de-worm their computers.

[Insight]

you shady shady folk ...    what web sites are you trying to visit that are blocked ??? I never yet had one that was blocked, and judging from the  friends of mine that always get themselves virussed up, they visit very shady sites indeed. This blocking of sites is a real bonus for the good, honest folk (like myself) who always get called by people to de-virus/ de-worm their computers.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ladbrokes...?

[sniffdog]

Yeah, I saved 45.9 seconds in two days. This app is a real disaster for people who don't know what to do with their time ...

BTW For those who think it unblocked some sites on True, please be disappointed.

It's True who unblocked some sites themselves.

Sites known to be blocked:

http://www.asianthumbs.org (now unblocked)

http://www.proxyserver.com (still blocked even with webacc)

(can be accessed in another way though)

http://www.kinghost.com (still blocked even with webacc)

These are not the 'shady' sites Pandit refers to ...

Edited May 6, 2005 by sniffdog

[sniffdog]

Latest update: I removed it already. It wipes out your proxy server settings in IE. Seems to be OK in Firefox though.

[bkk_mike]

It's probably pre-downloading the linked web pages while you're reading, so as long as you click on a link, it will probably have downloaded at least some of the next web page.

Nice idea - but might be a bit of a bandwidth hog...

[melus]

...and memory resource hog.

[george]

I like it, saves more than 20% on my surfing.

[sniffdog]

=============================================

I like it, saves more than 20% on my surfing.

=============================================

So for every 100 minutes of surfing, you've saved 20?

I saved around 5 minutes on 10 hours ....

As I said in the other thread, I removed it already.

It wipes out your proxy server in favour of its own. Real annoying that you have to enter your own proxy server over and over again.

PS This is the case for IE, not for Firefox.

Edited May 6, 2005 by sniffdog

[GoodHeart]

Seems that Google's gone and developed an accelerator.

http://webaccelerator.google.com/

Has anyone tried it? Anyone seen a benefit? Would you recommend it?

[Thomas_Merton]

Seems that Google's gone and developed an accelerator.

http://webaccelerator.google.com/

Has anyone tried it? Anyone seen a benefit? Would you recommend it?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You don't need it.

Anything quicker than normal would confuse you.

So much so, that not only would you be unable to notice there is a two page thread on this very subject, half a dozen threads below your new thread, you probably would still be unable to use the search facility to check if there is an existing thread.

A fool with an accelerator, is still a fool.

Edited May 7, 2005 by Thomas_Merton

[thaiflyer1]

A fool with an accelerator, is still a fool.

Even one with a GoodHeart.

[thai_norman]

the only way to speed up the stuff you get is to in your options tick not to show jpgs and stuff like that, then you only get the text, then its quick, but it aint much fun on the sex sites just getting the text.. anal 3 some without pics aint worth looking at

[monty]

They do mention that at this moment only users in Europe and the US will have any advantage!!!

As far as I know Thailand is not located in any of these two continents

[sniffdog]

=============================================

As far as I know Thailand is not located in any of these two continents

=============================================

Well, walking on Patpong at night, prove me otherwise

[waldwolf]

From Google's FAQ:

How does Google Web Accelerator work?

Google Web Accelerator uses various strategies to make your web pages load faster, including:

. Sending your page requests through Google machines dedicated to handling Google Web Accelerator traffic.

. Storing copies of frequently looked at pages to make them quickly accessible.

. Downloading only the updates if a web page has changed slightly since you last viewed it.

. Prefetching certain pages onto your computer in advance.

. Managing your Internet connection to reduce delays.

. Compressing data before sending it to your computer.

Does Google Web Accelerator speed up all web pages?

No, it doesn't. For security reasons, Google Web Accelerator won't speed up pages encrypted with the HTTPS: protocol (such as bank records pages). Also, Google Web Accelerator only speeds up web pages, not large data downloads such as MP3 and streaming video files.

Google's Web Accelerator is basically the same "compression" utility many ISP's have been offering their dial-up customers for several years, at an additional fee.

My suspicious mind keeps asking......"Now why is Google only offering this for broadband and not dial-up?"

[RDN]

[Phil Conners]

Snakeoil, and only computer ilitterates ought to fall for it. The actual percepiton of a speed improvement comes by the "accelerator" prefetching pages linked by your current page. The rest is all fluff and technobabble. If you eventually plan to read all links on the page you'd be ok, but if not you're just wasting what little bandwidth available in Thailand for everybody else.

Edited May 7, 2005 by madsere

[waldwolf]

A number of recognized authorities are stating that the Google Web Accelorator (GWA) is "a-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing".........meaning SPYWARE !

To quote one publication:

In improving performance on the web, the application makes use of a cache, or data store, on the local computer, as well as caches on Google's servers, Marissa Mayer, director of consumer web products for Google, said Thursday. The software is only available for broadband users.

The desktop cache is for web pages that are pre-loaded based on a person's web activity. The software uses mathematical formulas to try to determine what web content the person is most likely to seek, based on prior behavior. The cache on Google's server is populated with popular web content based on the activity of Web Accelerator users as a whole.

Privacy advocates, however, expressed concern over storing people's web browsing activities. Such information could be subpoenaed later by law enforcement agencies investigating criminal cases or by lawyers in civil cases.

Google admits on their own support page that any and all passwords, e-mail addresses etc. you enter in a web form (e. g. when purchasing an item online) will be funneled via their systems.

Now go back and re-read it again, look at and think about these statements:

"as well as caches on Google's servers"

"based on a person's web activity".

"based on prior behavior".

......then take 2 aspirin and re-read that last paragraph again, starting with "Google admits...."

Google's GWA's support info here.

A number of websites have already started blocking GWA's usage, so if you are having trouble with a sites, this could be one reason.

Perhaps you recall the days of Intel's infamous CPU serial number scandal or Microsofts collecting & storing your system data on their servers during updates or Microsoft's "hidden" data in programs such as Word?.

They all said "...don't worry about it, we don't look at any of the data we collect".

Lets be realistic. How many companies do you know of, who spend money and time collecting information they never look at (or use)?

Remember.....in this world there are no free lunches.

cheers

[Thomas_Merton]

Lets be realistic. How many companies do you know of, who spend money and time collecting information they never look at (or use)?

Remember.....in this world there are no free lunches.

cheers

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Then you might be interested in this, from a previous posting:

Google is not infallible.

Google creates a deal of criticism throughout the web community. Please see:

• http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue39/search-engines/ for an academic approach to this criticism.

• http://www.google-watch.org/index.html an organisation that monitors Google's activities, particularly on privacy issues.

Google watch’s principle criticism is this:

1. Google's immortal cookie:

Google was the first search engine to use a cookie that expires in 2038. This was at a time when federal websites were prohibited from using persistent cookies altogether. Now it's years later, and immortal cookies are commonplace among search engines; Google set the standard because no one bothered to challenge them. This cookie places a unique ID number on your hard disk. Anytime you land on a Google page, you get a Google cookie if you don't already have one. If you have one, they read and record your unique ID number.

2. Google records everything they can:

For all searches they record the cookie ID, your Internet IP address, the time and date, your search terms, and your browser configuration. Increasingly, Google is customizing results based on your IP number. This is referred to in the industry as "IP delivery based on geolocation."

3. Google retains all data indefinitely:

Google has no data retention policies. There is evidence that they are able to easily access all the user information they collect and save.

4. Google won't say why they need this data:

Inquiries to Google about their privacy policies are ignored. When the New York Times (2002-11-28) asked Sergey Brin about whether Google ever gets subpoenaed for this information, he had no comment.

5. Google hires spooks:

Matt Cutts, a key Google engineer, used to work for the National Security Agency. Google wants to hire more people with security clearances, so that they can peddle their corporate assets to the spooks in Washington.

6. Google's toolbar is spyware:

With the advanced features enabled, Google's free toolbar for Explorer phones home with every page you surf, and yes, it reads your cookie too. Their privacy policy confesses this, but that's only because Alexa lost a class-action lawsuit when their toolbar did the same thing, and their privacy policy failed to explain this. Worse yet, Google's toolbar updates to new versions quietly, and without asking. This means that if you have the toolbar installed, Google essentially has complete access to your hard disk every time you connect to Google (which is many times a day). Most software vendors, and even Microsoft, ask if you'd like an updated version. But not Google. Any software that updates automatically presents a massive security risk.

7. Google's cache copy is illegal:

Judging from Ninth Circuit precedent on the application of U.S. copyright laws to the Internet, Google's cache copy appears to be illegal. The only way a webmaster can avoid having his site cached on Google is to put a "noarchive" meta in the header of every page on his site. Surfers like the cache, but webmasters don't. Many webmasters have deleted questionable material from their sites, only to discover later that the problem pages live merrily on in Google's cache. The cache copy should be "opt-in" for webmasters, not "opt-out."

8. Google is not your friend:

By now Google enjoys a 75 percent monopoly for all external referrals to most websites. Webmasters cannot avoid seeking Google's approval these days, assuming they want to increase traffic to their site. If they try to take advantage of some of the known weaknesses in Google's semi-secret algorithms, they may find themselves penalized by Google, and their traffic disappears. There are no detailed, published standards issued by Google, and there is no appeal process for penalized sites. Google is completely unaccountable. Most of the time Google doesn't even answer email from webmasters.

9. Google is a privacy time bomb:

With 200 million searches per day, most from outside the U.S., Google amounts to a privacy disaster waiting to happen. Those newly-commissioned data-mining bureaucrats in Washington can only dream about the sort of slick efficiency that Google has already achieved.

Should you wish to use a search engine that uses Google but eliminates these privacy issues, try:

http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm

[RDN]

^^^ and you can get a Scroogle search engine plugin which works with the "Conquery" extension of Firefox, here: http://www.scroogle.org/scget.html

[marquess]

you shady shady folk ...  what web sites are you trying to visit that are blocked ??? I never yet had one that was blocked, and judging from the friends of mine that always get themselves virussed up, they visit very shady sites indeed. This blocking of sites is a real bonus for the good, honest folk (like myself) who always get called by people to de-virus/ de-worm their computers.

I am not sure if it is just me, but for the last couple of days I seem to have been able to get into all the blocked sites. Now I have not download the accelerator, how would I be able to check? Also during the last couple of days anything that requires a connexion to a server P2P or certain chat rooms, keeps coming up with an error. Any ideas anyone?

[RDN]

...Should you wish to use a search engine that uses Google but eliminates these privacy issues, try:

http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm[/b]

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh-oh, from Scroogle:

Sorry, but we have a limit of 20 searches per hour per user due to our limited bandwidth.