New Google Site Provides a Virtual View Into Secretive Data Centers

By David Tobia
October 24, 2012

“Google is opening a virtual window into the secretive data centers where an intricate maze of computers process Internet search requests, show YouTube video clips, and distribute email for millions of people,” according to CNBC.
The site features photos from eight Google data centers in the U.S., Finland, and Belgium. The company is using its “Street View” technology to offer a virtual tour of one North Carolina data center.
Google’s original data centers were intended to index all the pages on the Internet and provide accurate, quick search results. But as Google has evolved into a business giant beyond search, the data centers have grown to accommodate “videos, photos, email and information about their users’ preferences,” writes CNBC.
“Google studies Internet search requests and Web surfing habits in an effort to gain a better understanding of what people like,” notes the article. “The company does this in an effort to show ads of products and services to the people most likely to be interested in buying them. Advertising accounts for virtually all of Google’s revenue, which totaled nearly $23 billion through the first half of this year.”
While Google is providing a view into its data centers, it continues to remain vague on how many computers it owns, and also will refuse physical access to the centers.
The company is building additional data centers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Chile.

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