Garrett Rogers has dug out a list of domains registered by Google yesterday and speculates on their intentions. Here’s the list :

archivesearchgoogle.com/net
archivesssearchgoogle.com/net
google-archive-search.com/net
google-archive.com/net
google-archives-search.com/net
google-archives.com/net
google-archivesearch.com/net
google-archivessearch.com/net

First thought are :”Is Google going to provide a ‘cool’ service that lets you see the history of the web, or will it be a service that lets you search through historic publications?”

We shall see. We know Google keeps one cached copy of a page, “but is it possible that every time the cache is updated, the old version is filed away somewhere safe?”

Google is launching a citywide WiFi network in its home town Mountain View, California, but denied it was planning a nationwide service.

Minnie Ingersoll, Product Manager for Google commented:

Today, Google launched a WiFi network in our hometown of Mountain View. Radios hanging on lampposts throughout the city are now broadcasting a “GoogleWiFi” wireless (802.11b/g) signal that brings wireless Internet access to the city’s residents, businesses, and visitors. All anyone needs is a laptop or other wireless-enabled device and a web browser to get online. Then Mountain View users can select the “GoogleWiFi” signal, open their web browser and sign in with a free Google Account. To learn more about the network’s coverage area and the location of the WiFi radios, we’ve published a map.

This network is a way for us to give back to and engage with the community where our headquarters are. As the product manager for Google WiFi, it has been has been tremendously rewarding to partner with the local government, the schools, the library, the neighborhood associations, and all of our trusted testers to introduce the power of free, wireless Internet connectivity to the city. I look forward to meeting with more members of the community at upcoming training sessions and ice cream socials.

Let’s hope they can get the system working. WiFi has an unfortunate reputation for unreliable service and slow connections.

Google’s Blogger.com, the original blog publishing platform for the world, has unveiled a new beta version that has enhanced privacy settings. You can now specify if a blog is public, private or by invitation only.

Steve Rubel comments : “I signed up for the Blogger beta and found the changes to be very intuitive although evolutionary from the last big upgrade. However, already there is a big hole for private blogs. By default Google turns on feeds for all new blogs. When these blogs are private, the feeds are still totally public and therefore can and will be indexed by search engines. Google should treat feeds on private blogs the same way they do in Google Calendar.”

TechCrunch notes : “… in my experience the beta system isn’t stable enough to use yet. You can check it out now though. Blogger users will be notified when they are invited to switch over to the beta version. … There is a long list of new and updated features, but in the long run I’m guessing that integration of Blogger with Google Accounts may make the biggest difference.”

Blogger was developed by Pyra Labs in 1999, and sold to Google in 2003. The company has rather sat on it ever since, making small changes here and there and allowing millions of spam “splogs” to build up on the system. It’s generally recognized though that Blogger is the simplest way to put up a free blog and learn to manipulate the template code.

It’s interesting how Google Earth, a mashup that seemed like a nice plaything when it first appeared, inevitably in beta, is now going seriously mainstream.

I recently watched ITN News in the UK screen a dynamic 3-D map of Lebanon and Israel on their main bulletin, badged “Google Earth”. It was excellent and a huge improvement on their usual drawn diagrams.

As Google’s many experiments in “Web 2.0″ become commonplace off the computer, how long before Google itself brands itself as mainstream media?