First off: Cringely doesn’t provide evidence. He’s guessing that a way of giving Google preferred access without technically violating net neutrality is to give them access to Verizon property for server farms, thus cutting out some of the hops on the internet backbone. Interesting theory. I wonder if/when we’ll get the real story of this secret pact.
To see how it could work, you need to know a little about Google’s network of data centers, those windowless buildings around the country containing the servers that answer search queries, show maps, provide e-mail service and download YouTube videos. Several years ago, the company found a way to build a data center quickly and easily by simply filling a warehouse with stacked shipping containers — each one filled with computers. You just plug the containers together and flip the switch. Clever.
