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That isn't how DNS works. It is true that 90% of users go directly to google, but once there they click on Search results, news results, etc... The browser tak
by marltod 17y ago
That isn't how DNS works. It is true that 90% of users go directly to google, but once there they click on Search results, news results, etc... The browser takes the link and the OS does a DNS lookup to get the ip address of the server hosting that url. Then the browser connects to that server, google is no longer in the picture.
- dmnd 17y agoThe point was that, for most users, Google is an abstraction over URLs, just like DNS is an abstraction over IP addresses.
- Kadin 17y agoExactly. A lot of people don't remember domain names anymore, they remember the words they need to type into Google in order to bring that site up as the top link. E.g., if they want to get to Dell's website, rather than typing "dell.com" into the URL field, they type "dell" or "dell computer" into the search box and then click on the first result.
- Retric 17y agoOddly enough this relates to all the domain squatters out there. If you misstype something into the search bar you don't know what you get, but by clicking on the first link in Google you are taken the to the "reputable" site. So a reputable DNS service that did this automatically would be a direct threat to Google.
- tptacek 17y agoIT ALSO BREAKS THE DNS.
- pyre 17y agoYou're also thinking too web-centric. DNS is not only used by web-surfers to construct URLs in their browsers. Things that make sense from a 'how to I find this webpage' sense do not make sense from a 'how does my non-web client contact the non-http server' sense.
- marltod 17y agoHere is the difference between what Google will know: User A: Google DNS: search for dell, dns lookups; dell.com, chat1.us.dell.com, checkout.dell.com User B: Non-Google DNS: search for dell
- tptacek 17y agoFor a large slice of Internet hosts, Google is already getting fine-grained data on what pages you're hitting.
- tptacek 17y agoIt's not how DNS works, but it is how the Internet works. Google's ability to track users is already in many cases page-granular. The point I'm making is, it doesn't matter if people use Google for DNS, because they're already handing Google more valuable information. But it does matter if they're handing it to OpenDNS.