‘Net Neutrality and Google

An analyst at Cowen and Company released a research note today saying that Google would not be affected by an end to network neutrality on the Internet. Arnie Berman argues that Google search results do not consume meaningful amounts of bandwidth and that files from iTunes and YouTube are much more bandwidth intensive. Apple and YouTube have more to worry about than Google, Berman says. While it’s obvious that audio and video files are far bigger than a search results page, I don’t think Google is in the clear on this potential issue. First, the sheer volume of traffic they get has to result in a hefty bandwidth bill. And Berman is only focusing on one part of Google’s business – the main search engine. Google does offer more including video downloads – the majority, if not all, of the videos on Google Video are stored in the company’s data centers. Those MPEG-4 files are large. There’s also GMail, where people have 2.7GB of storage. That data has to go through the ‘Net to get to Google. Now the company is adding payment service, which will also drive more traffic to the Internet giant. Google’s bandwidth usage is much higher than Berman is giving credit for. And, if the idea of network neutrality does end and carriers get to charge a tariff on traffic, who do you think they’re going to hit up first: The startup with no cash or the public company that’s currently trading at $414.88?