Google Windows Web Accelerator

[Brett_Tabke]

[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.

Looks like some of the Mozilla hires are paying dvidends.

[larryhatch]

Maybe I missed something here.

I got the impression (from GG) that the header for prefetches included 'X-moz' and/or 'prefetch'.

I download rather standard access-log files daily, each about 1 MB in size.
Searching thru the last few days, I cannot find ANY x-moz or prefetch words at all.
1) Are these terms supposed to appear anywhere in access_log listings? -or-
2) Are GWA users still so few, that none happened by yet on my site?

- Larry

[LeoXIV]

Considering the structure of a corporation, it seems that a team in Google developed the WA and got permission to release it, 'AS IS', from Microsoft and Yahoo.

[Scarecrow]

Multiple choice quiz. Which of these three statements is true?

1. "Information wants to be free."

2. "The Internet views censorship as damage and routes around it."

3. "An Internet company with a $62 billion market cap views a decentralized market as both a threat and an opportunity, and will try to route everything they can through its own equipment."

Google will be back, and back, and back. By now webmasters are no better than populist scum to Google. They'll keep at it. Throw up a test balloon here, throw up another there, see what flies for the dumbed-down Internet surfers, and see it it also fools a sufficient number of clueless Wall Street pundits. Withdraw slightly, and temporarily, if it appears that it may have been a bit too much too soon.

"The greatest lesson that History teaches us is that no one learns from History."

[Longhaired Genius]

Larry (msg #:428)

What you see in your logs is "the request". What Google is talking about is the user-agent headers. You can see the headers that your user-agent is sending here:
[searchengineworld.com...]

There have been several posts saying how to block/query requests with the x-moz header. I haven't been totaly convinced by any of them. I wish jdmorgan would weigh-in on the subject.

[larryhatch]

Not to belabor the point but:

Can I see if a G Windows Accelerator has prefetched files in my access_logs?
If so, exactly what do I look for? Something in the user-agent string? -Larry

[larryhatch]

Hi Longhair: Our messages crossed in the wires.

Will there be something in "the request" that indicates the GWWA has been by or not? Something I can see in my log files listings? - Larry

[KenB]

The only way you can see if GWA has hit your site is to look for requests coming from the folloiwng Class C subnets:
64.233.172.
64.233.173.
72.14.192.
72.14.194.

and those hits have normal browser types (e.g. MSIE or Firefox) in their useragent strings. There may be other IP address ranges that GWA is using, but I am not aware of them.

[larryhatch]

Thanks KenB: A clear answer at last. Its a lot harder to search for DNS numbers though, I was hoping for something simpler and faster. -Larry

[larryhatch]

Some results KenB (and thanks again)

I checked all 4 partial DNS #s. Out of 2 days of logs, maybe 1800 KB worthm I found only two files downloaded, an html page and the .gif image that the page calls. Scarcely any impact on bandwidth so far. -Larry

[KenB]

I think for now, many sites will feel little to no impact because GWA is in beta and not very widely disseminated. When it will begin to have a big impact is once it is out of beta and being promoted to the general public.

[razinkane]

With Web Accelerator enabled the Alexa toolbar says my IP is blocked because of a possible violation of Alexa's Terms of Service, and it's not my IP it's Google's.... Took me awhile to figure this out.... I am on Road Runner so my IP is always changing, I didn't suspect that a Google application would break Alexa, but it did! To fix this you turn off Web Accelerator...

Here's the error.. We're sorry but you do not have permission to access null. Your IP address, 64.233.173.77, has been blocked due to a possible violation of our Terms of Service.

Alexa's terms of service, available at pages.alexa.com/help/terms.html, grants a limited license to make personal use of the service and expressly prohibits commercial use, copying, and the creation of derivative works. If you need programmatic access to Alexa data please use the Alexa Web Information Service (available at www.amazon.com/webservices).

To unblock your IP Address, click the Submit button below. Please note this will work only once.

64.233.173.77

OrgName: Google Inc.
OrgID: GOGL
Address: 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
City: Mountain View
StateProv: CA
PostalCode: 94043
Country: US

NetRange: 64.233.160.0 - 64.233.191.255
CIDR: 64.233.160.0/19
NetName: GOOGLE
NetHandle: NET-64-233-160-0-1
Parent: NET-64-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: NS1.GOOGLE.COM
NameServer: NS2.GOOGLE.COM
Comment:
RegDate: 2003-08-18
Updated: 2004-03-05

TechHandle: ZG39-ARIN
TechName: Google Inc.
TechPhone: [phone]
TechEmail: [e-mail]

OrgTechHandle: ZG39-ARIN
OrgTechName: Google Inc.
OrgTechPhone: [phone]
OrgTechEmail: [e-mail]

[reseller]

razinkane

Should I understand that Alexa is blocking GWA?

Thanks.

[razinkane]

Yes Alexa is Blocking Google Windows Web Accelerator

[reseller]

razinkane

<Yes Alexa is Blocking Google Windows Web Accelerator>

Thanks for the good news :-)

Have a great day and a successful week.

[Powdork]

That may be a bit of an exaggeration. I don;'t have the alexa toolbar but can visit alexa.com with the WA on or off.

[razinkane]

Okay the Alexa toolbar breaks when using GWA.. And the only fix is to turn GWA off.

[Powdork]

Just downloaded the Alexa toolbar. It seems to run fine in conjunction with the WA. Did you actually do anything against alexa's T and C?

[razinkane]

No I just surfed the web with GWA turned on for 2 days, I guess I got the lucky copy of GWA with that IP 64.233.173.77, it doesn't happen right away, just surf around a bit and the Alexa toolbar loses all data and says you are blocked. I turn it off and Alexa comes back.

[cyanweb]

I'm still thinking about the fact that Google could intercept form data... as they state - and wondering how that would be possible...

I would think it could only be if the form results are displayed on an insecure result page that it would be cached - not that Google takes the submitted data and passes it on to form scripts etc... any other ideas?

[claus]

razinkane, and others that have the WA installed:

I'm trying to make a list of the IP's of this thing.

It would be very helpful if each of you that have it installed would visit one of those sites where you can lookup your IP, and then write the IP number in this thread with the country/region you're in (or state, if you want), like:

64.233.173.77 - US

[razinkane]

Claus,
IP Is 65.184.143.77

Proxy Detected Is 64.233.173.81 in the US

[claus]

thanks razinkane :)

It's only the IP of the WA / proxy that i'm interested in, not your own IP. I wasn't clear on that in the previous post, sorry.

[elbpdx]

Claus, I see the request to cdp.google.com which is cname'd to cdp.l.google.com which is 216.239.53.89.

[Powdork]

My inquiry form on my website uses
<input type=hidden name="env_report" value="REMOTE_ADDR">.
That only produces my IP when using the WA.

[incrediBILL]

I've been watching the mainstream media looking to see is there was much mention, if any, about the WA flap or the DNS fiasco over the weekend and it's been surprisingly very quiet unless they are just slow to catch up.

Most specifically I was looking around places where I get my updates on companies for making stock buying decisions - stone cold silence. The only downturn story was about the off topic CPM ads could "unseat their dominant position as a contextual search ad service".

The only thing new that showed up on my radar this afternoon was some fluff PR piece:

"Google To Cut Seconds Off Surfing"
[story.news.yahoo.com...]

Must be nice to get paid to regurgitate press releases without doing any investigating on the topic.

I need something simple in my life like that.