• by May 6, 2005

Search is speeding up.

Google launched a test version of something it calls Web Accelerator, software that speeds up Web searches and content-loading. Web Accelerator, which runs with a user's Internet browser, directs searches and page requests through Google servers. The product works by deploying a cache on local computers and Google servers.

But are there privacy issues with the Web Accelerator? The product uses a desktop cache for Web pages that are pre-loaded based on a user's Web activity. The Web Accelerator uses mathematical formulas that attempt to ferret out content a user is most likely to want. Sounds like a form of behavioral targeting/profiling. Web content based on Web Accelerator users' past preferences sits on the cache on Google's servers. Hmmm. The Minute wonders whether this behavioral data will be deployed in Google's ad products.

Google says that distributing Web pages from a desktop cache or Google servers is typically faster than retrieving content from the public Web. Google says it compresses the data so that it moves faster to browsers. The Web Accelerator product can be turned off.