Google just loves shaking up any industry that that screws up the process of getting people online. It tried to kick-start free municipal wi-fi a few years ago by setting one up for the city of Mountain View and TRYING to do the same in San Francisco (greedy SF supervisors managed to kill the plan by trying to get Google to up its offer to pay SF $1 million for the privilege of giving SF free Internet access. Supervisor John Daly opposed the plan just because mayor Gavin Newsom was in favor of it.)
Now it's trying to demonstrate to airports that they should offer free wi-fi. According to an article in PC World:
"Hoping to bring holiday cheer to harried travelers, Google is footing the bill for Wi-Fi access at 47 U.S. airports through mid-January, so that people can connect free to the Internet while they wait at airline gates and other areas."
Now isn't that a nice idea? Maybe people will get used to the service and start demanding it. Come on, airports often keep us waiting for hours, especially during the holidays. Wouldn't that be a good thing to do for customers at minimal expense?
But then, most businesses would rather save money by punishing their customers. No wonder they get bad reps.