Google has launched a new DNS Service, named Google Public DNS, which is free for everyone to use. This initiative is a part of Google’s efforts to make the web faster.
DNS lookup is the first thing that happens when you type in a website address in the browser – Its the way computers communicate while fetching information from the servers. If you are interested in an in-depth explanation – You can learn more about “How DNS Works” here.
But in Google’s own words:
The DNS protocol is an important part of the web’s infrastructure, serving as the Internet’s “phone book”. Every time you visit a website, your computer performs a DNS lookup. Complex pages often require multiple DNS lookups before they complete loading. As a result, the average Internet user performs hundreds of DNS lookups each day, that collectively can slow down his or her browsing experience.
Each ISP (Internet Service Provider) has their own DNS Servers and Google is hoping to provide a DNS Server which better in terms of both speed and security for people surfing the web.
Why does DNS matter?
The DNS protocol is an important part of the web’s infrastructure, serving as the Internet’s phone book: every time you visit a website, your computer performs a DNS lookup. Complex pages often require multiple DNS lookups before they start loading, so your computer may be performing hundreds of lookups a day. Google hopes to leverage its reach on the Web through its huge number of data-centres around the web and speed up the browsing for individual users.
Why should you try Google Public DNS?
By using Google Public DNS you can:
- Speed up your browsing experience. (Google explains How its DNS Service helps to increase browsing speed)
- Improve your security. (How Google DNS provides a Secure browsing Experience)
- Get the results you expect with absolutely no redirection.
Privacy Considerations for Google Public DNS:
There has always been a concern regarding Google having too much information about its users and whether the use of this service would be more invasive. We need to look at “How DNS Works” to understand this better.
Whenever you type in an address in the address bar of the browser Google DNS would only lookup the Primary domain name for the website, so they wouldn’t know – what exactly are you doing on the website. For Eg: If you are on EBay and looking a a specific product – all Google DNS Service would do is pull up “ebay.com” and wouldn’t check the entire URL like “ebay.com/i-like-ipods.html”. So Google would not know that you are shopping for iPods – all it will do is call the website much faster leveraging their reach on the web.
Also, Google does not store an information about your browsing and the logs are deleted after 24-48 hours!
Detailed information about How Google Protects your Privacy in this service can be found here.
Improvement in Browsing Speed after using Google DNS:
I have been using Google DNS from a couple of days and having tested on a few websites, Google DNS outperforms my DNS Service. Manu writes a detailed comparison between Google Public DNS and other well known DNS Services like Level3 and OpenDNS on his blog TechSutra. The results definitely show that Google DNS would be a better option for International users, but for users in US – OpenDNS would be the way to go.
How to Setup Google Public DNS on your Computer?
The Google DNS IP Address are : 8.8.8.8 – Primary and 8.8.4.4 – Secondary. All you have to so is replace your current DNS Server address with these and voila – Fater Browsing Speed!
If you want detailed information regarding setting up Google Public DNS on your PC – Its explained in the post : [Video & Screenshots] How to Setup Google DNS on your Computer.
