[arin-ppml] Google Embraces IPv6

[michael.dillon at bt.com]

> > Google has now provided a public page on their IPv6 efforts:
> >
> > http://www.google.com/intl/en/ipv6/
> >
> > It's nice to see something from the "Big Content" side of the world.
> 
> Even if they are aiming for Tier 1 status?

Tier 1 status is a historical anomaly. Back in the mid-90's, the early
Internet backbone providers were able to maintain a dominant position
in the peering ecology because they got there first, and therefore they
tended to have both the content, and the eyeballs, that other providers
needed to access.

Nowadays, it is a very different landscape, with the Internet extended 
throughout the world. The world's largest ISP is China Telecom, but
their users are a tiny fraction of the 40 million unique vistors per
month to the major Internet portal rambler.ru. The reason is that 
a quarter billion Chinese speaking users rarely have an interest in
a Russian language portal.

What does that have to do with Google, an American content provider?
Not much, but then Google is not an American content provider any more.
They are an international company with data centers in places like
Ireland,
Brazil, Germany, Japan, Italy and China.

You simply cannot use a simple metric like Tier 1, 2 or 3 in a
meaningful
way any more. The Internet is evolving. Some networks like Cogent or
China
Telecom, primarily function in one language/culture. Others like Google
cut across multiple linguistic/cultural boundaries and are redefining
what is the core of the Internet.

--Michael Dillon