Google patenting...free wifi?

[sigma7]

From CNNMoney: More evidence has emerged that Google is getting ready to blanket the U.S. with free Wi-Fi, as Business 2.0 senior writer Om Malik reported last year. Now, the company has filed for three patents related to offering wireless Internet access.

...Buh?

Comments

[opheliasclone.livejournal.com]

On the one hand:

Yay! Free internet access for everybody! It's like Nikola Tesla or something.

On the other hand:

Wait. Does this mean they control the horizontal AND the vertical?

And no the third hand:

Wait a minute. You can't patent a perfectly obvious extension of what's already going on out there. Can you?

[neonnurse.livejournal.com]

Well, THAT is certainly intriguing!!

[querldox.livejournal.com]

Eh. Google's already installing free WiFi in its hometown of Mountain View, and has a bid in to do the same in San Francisco. Given the US Patent Office backlog, these patents would've had to have been filed over a year ago. There's nothing here indicating anything is imminent beyond what's already known being done (i.e. MV and SF).