Google recently launched it’s Public DNS service with a claim that they are looking to make the browsing experience faster. A faster internet is something that is very crucial to Google considering it’s domination of the internet. So with Google Public DNS they are looking to give us more options.
Google Public DNS
Many amongst you might already know that DNS (Domain Name System) is used to fetch a website to your browser when you type in the URL. This DNS address is usually provided by your ISP (Internet Service Provider).
An Open or Public DNS is basically an alternative that can be used instead of the DNS address allotted by your ISP.
- Changing to Google Public DNS would be a good idea if your ISP has DNS issues and a really good indication of that is if you are getting a lot of “Page not found” errors even with a decent internet speed.
- Google Public DNS will store some private information of the user in a temporary log. This information with include the full IP address of the computer you are using. These temporary logs will be deleted every 24-48 hours.
- There is quite a lot of information that will be stored in permanent logs which is mostly performance oriented. Some information of your location will be stored at the city/town level. This is being done for debugging and also improve the prefetching feature of Google Public DNS.
- On the privacy front, Google will not link or co-relate any other logs of your usage with the Public DNS logs. In simpler words they will not collect details of your internet usage and then relate it to lets say your Google account.
Monetizing Redirection?
- There will be some redirection concerns when using Google Public DNS. Redirection takes place when a page cannot be fetched incase the web address is entered incorrectly.
- Google has been silent on this at the moment but really nothing can stop Google to show advertisements or redirect to Google search when a page cannot be fetched while using its DNS.
What good can come out of Google Public DNS?
An ISP which does not have a great record with it’s DNS servers might not get a lot of attention except by it’s estranged customers. Google being the internet giant it is, will be scrutinized very minutely and will receive bad press if it does not get Public DNS right.
This is a good thing as Google Public DNS still has to offer new services which can help filter and tune up your internet experience.
Let me know your experiences and thoughts on Public DNS through your comments.
I am still thinking of its advantages over my current DNS provider (AIRTEL). Any idea whether it is faster than Airtel or not ?
I will suggest use Open DNS which will be much better IMO
I am using Google DNS from last 24 hours. I have not experienced any significant speed increase as yet
If you are using Google DNS and have not seen any speed increase it might be for various reasons. 99% of the times if your internet speed is over 256Kbps you really might not need to change over to Google DNS at all.
Looks like this will be good for those on slower connections. I think the average broadband home and business user won’t notice much difference to be honest.
First of all, thank you very much for this cOol info. My Bsnl dns s****.. and dc anytime.. I tried and its 2 days and its working superb.. I think my browsing speed is much better… yeah, MUCH…
Everyone have to try it.
Google Rocks agaIn….
My internet speed is 256 kbps and I am one of those 1.0% who getting it works… works.. yeah!
Aditya , you have rightly pointed the advert part , i think its one major reason google has introduced this service . Damn , google can monetize on everything …
I was using OpenDNS and frankly I dont see any change from OpenDNS to Google DNS. I just switched cause most of the Google products turn out to be successful and their DNS servers are pretty easy to memorize.
Easier than my ISPs and even OpenDNS! So here I am.