Free national Wi-Fi from Google?

"What if Google wanted to give Wi-Fi access to everyone in America? And what if it had technology capable of targeting advertising to a user’s precise location?"

"One of the cheapest ways would be for Google to blanket major cities with Wi-Fi"

I'm not sure what to make of this. I just stumbled across it over at Om's blog, and then I saw that the guys at SiliconBeat mentioned it too (and they also seem a tad unsure about what to make of it).

Here's Om's article for B2, and here's his post.

Let's hope that there's some truth too it (and there's no reason why there shouldn't be). It does sound brilliant, and in some ways it could be seen as Google's equiv of Yahoo!'s deal with SBC. But on a much larger scale, and more in tune with Google's core business. And more in tune with how we, both as consumers and professionals, connect to information. Throw in some location based data? Sure, why not!

I'm sure we'll hear more about it in the near future.