Google made the announcement that it will be giving FREE Wi-Fi access on U.S. American airports between now and January 15, 2010. Currently, a total of 47 airports across the United states have participated in this early Google Wi-Fi treat.
We’re very happy to extend our Holiday Wi-Fi gift to the millions of people who will spend time in airports over the next few months,” said Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products and User Experience at Google. “We know that this is a very hectic travel season for people, and we hope that free Wi-Fi will make both traveling and connecting with friends and family a little bit easier.
This is Google’s way of giving back to millions of Americans who helped it achieve the top of internet industry ladder. Google officials said that thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year holidays are among the “heaviest” travel seasons of the year that causes flight delays and long boring hours of waiting at the airport. Thanks to Google, passengers can enjoy staying online via free Google Wi-Fi access.
Passengers can bring their laptops, PDAs, smartphones and any Wi-Fi enabled handheld gadgets to enjoy Google Wi-Fi in the airport. And because of google sponsorship of free Wi-Fi access, Virgin America airlines has offered FREE in-flight Wi-Fi access starting October of this year in all of its U.S. destinations.
Google Charity
Aside from providing free wireless connections, Google revealed that passengers will have the chance to make donations upon logging in to the airport’s wi-fi networks. Google will match the donations made across all networks up to $250,000, and the airport that generates the most money by Jan. 1, 2010 will receive a $15,000 to donate to the charity of their choice.
Google has extended its “Big Heart” proving that it not only care raking-in cash for profits but to share its blessings as well. We hope Google’s charity will be extended internationally. For sure billions of people will be delighted.
Check the U.S. participating airports and complete reports on Google.
Update:
After Google’s announcement of free Wi-Fi services, Yahoo kicked-off with their free wireless access campaign at Times Square, New York USA. More than 500,000 travelers and individuals can enjoy free wireless access with their laptops and handheld gadgets starting today. Mashable have reported that Yahoo may continue the free wi-fi treat in Manhattan the rest of 2010.
Probably, it was indeed a clever move for Yahoo to position a free wireless hotspot at a place where some of the rich and famous live. And although Google’s wireless offer was clearly better than Yahoo’s, the latter may take advantage of more than a year of website advertisements.
Yahoo had “quickly” developed a welcome page for New Yorkers to see while using Yahoo’s wireless service. I said “quickly” because of the subpar quality of design Yahoo! made for the starter page. I am sure, Carol Bartz and the rest of Yahoo community are struggling financially, but an extra effort in the design will give them extra “wow” points from users. Checkout the website’s header.
Not sure if I’m seeing lights similar to NDE patients reaching the end of the tunnel or stream of lights from a dream. Yahoo can absolutely do better than this. But at the very least, New Yorkers would probably not notice it after opening their facebook account or enjoying a free video stream from Youtube.
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Tags: airport wireless access, Free airport wi-fi, google, Google charity, Google Christmas present, Google free Wi-fi access
