What the heck is a DNS?
It stands for “Domain Name Server” — and what that is, well let me give you a little background first. The way computers find each other on the internet is through their IP (Internet Protocol) address. This is actually a series of numbers like 192.168.1.1 (if you recognize those numbers that is a default IP address for many home routers)
A series of seemingly random numbers may be fine for computers, but we humans like more catchy things like “apple.com” or “facebook.com” – a lot easier than: http://69.63.184.142/ for Facebook or a similarly unintelligible stream of digits for Apple. The way this is resolved is through the use of a “Domain Name Server.”
When you type in facebook.com, a DNS takes that domain and sees what it’s actual IP address is, then it gives you the website. Who are these DNS guys? Well, usually your ISP (internet service provider) handles the DNS duties. In my case I use Comcast. When you think of all the people right now who are using Comcast this very second to check the sports score, watch Youtube, shop at Amazon, that adds up to a STAGGERING number of requests. Tons and tons of data is being routed every second.
Well, like them or not, Google has offered up their Public DNS for anybody to use. They have a pretty awesome ability to handle tons of data and direct it where it needs to go. I switched my DNS today from the default Comcast setting to Google’s setting (8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4) and was very pleasantly surprised at how much more quickly web pages loaded.
When you think of it, there may be many different DNS requests for any given page; there might be a picture from one place, a video from another, the HTML is another and on and on. Google seems to handle the load quite well, and I’m happy with the result.
What does Google get out of it? Random data aggregation. They are tracking browsing habits and seeing where people go. Your name is not attached to any of it, and it just helps them better their services.
Oh stop! Big Brother is NOT WATCHING YOU! At least not anymore than he has been for years. You’ve been using DNS servers since before you could even say the word “internet” – just because Google is using the data does not mean you’re being spied on! As I see it, when I search for something online, I want to find it and I want to find it in one click. There may be 40,000 websites that show up from a single search, and if Google handles the heavy lifting for me to find the right site, I’m all for it.
Anyhow, I just thought I’d share this little tidbit I found today with all of you. Enjoy! (or don’t!) 