[MACEP] Google builds in The Dalles

[Mark Petersen]

 From the NY Times:

THE DALLES, Ore., June 8 — On the banks of the windswept Columbia  
River, Google is working on a secret weapon in its quest to dominate  
the next generation of Internet computing. But it is hard to keep a  
secret when it is a computing center as big as two football fields,  
with twin cooling plants protruding four stories into the sky.

The complex, sprawling like an information-age factory, heralds a  
substantial expansion of a worldwide computing network handling  
billions of search queries a day and a growing repertory of other  
Internet services.

And odd as it may seem, the barren desert land surrounding the  
Columbia along the Oregon-Washington border — at the intersection of  
cheap electricity and readily accessible data networking — is the  
backdrop for a multibillion-dollar face-off among Google, Microsoft  
and Yahoo that will determine dominance in the online world in the  
years ahead.

Microsoft and Yahoo have announced that they are building big data  
centers upstream in Wenatchee and Quincy, Wash., 130 miles to the  
north. But it is a race in which they are playing catch-up. Google  
remains far ahead in the global data-center race, and the scale of  
its complex here is evidence of its extraordinary ambition.

Complete article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/14/technology/14search.html? 
hp&ex=1150344000&en=25cfc1be85c1d603&ei=5094&partner=homepage

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mark A. Petersen    map at mac.com    Portland, Oregon

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