YouTube vs. T-Mobile: Do Customers Prefer Price over Quality?

John D. McKinnon and Thomas Gryta report to the Wall Street Journal that "YouTube said T-Mobile US Inc. is interfering with its video traffic, raising a new issue as federal regulators examine the wireless carrier’s streaming-video strategy.

T-Mobile recently began offering a program [Bingeon] that delivers video at lower quality in exchange for waiving related data fees. YouTube and its allies say T-Mobile also is lowering the quality of video that isn’t part of the program, including YouTube clips.

YouTube, which is owned by Alphabet Inc., said T-Mobile is effectively throttling, or degrading, its traffic. “Reducing data charges can be good for users, but it doesn’t justify throttling all video services, especially without explicit user consent,” a YouTube spokesman said.

T-Mobile declined to address YouTube’s complaints. In a statement, the No. 3 U.S. carrier by subscribers said its customers “love having free streaming video that never hits their data bucket” and like “both the quality of their video experience and the complete control they have.”

According to T-Mobile the video quality in the Binge On service plan "looks great. Binge On™ optimizes video quality for smartphone screens. It provides a great DVD-quality experience (typically 480p or better) which can also minimize buffering and maximize quality while using a fraction of the data. But it is your choice. If you want a higher resolution data experience, you can always choose to turn off Binge On™; however, you will no longer have the ability to stream for free from your favorite streaming services or have video optimized for your smartphone screen resulting in higher usage of your high speed data .. 

..All of our included video streaming services will be optimized when using the app or streaming through browsers

..if you are streaming video from one of our Binge On providers while tethering from a smartphone, tablet, or mobile internet device to a laptop, desktop, tablet, or handset you will enjoy all the great benefits of Binge On

See "YouTube Says T-Mobile Is Throttling Its Video Traffic" - here.

Google & Partners Introduce "Accelerated Mobile Pages"

Yet another component in Google's effort to make the internet faster.

Google's Official Blog announced that "after discussions with publishers and technology companies around the world, we’re announcing a new open source initiative called Accelerated Mobile Pages, which aims to dramatically improve the performance of the mobile web". 

Some of the other Google optimization projects:

• Google's Introduces New Compression Algorithm  - here
• Google (regretfully) Shuts Down PageSpeed and Recommends 10+ Alternatives  - here
• Google Chrome New Compression Proxy Reduces Data by 50%  - here
• Google Optimizes Web sites and Brings CDN Serivce to the Masses - here
• Google [Still] Claims there is a Faster TCP - here

"We want webpages with rich content like video, animations and graphics to work alongside smart ads, and to load instantaneously. We also want the same code to work across multiple platforms and devices so that content can appear everywhere in an instant—no matter what type of phone, tablet or mobile device you’re using.
 
The project relies on AMP HTML, a new open framework built entirely out of existing web technologies, which allows websites to build light-weight webpages. To give you a sense of what a faster mobile web might look like, we’ve developed this demo on Google Search:

Over time we anticipate that other Google products such as Google News will also integrate AMP HTML pages. And today we’re announcing that nearly 30 publishers from around the world are taking part too.

This is the start of an exciting collaboration with publishers and technology companies, who have all come together to make the mobile web work better for everyone. Twitter, Pinterest, WordPress.com, Chartbeat, Parse.ly, Adobe Analytics and LinkedIn are among the first group of technology partners planning to integrate AMP HTML pages".

How do Accelerated Mobile Pages work?

Accelerated Mobile Pages are just like any other HTML page, but with a limited set of allowed technical functionality that is defined and governed by the open source AMP spec. Just like all web pages, Accelerated Mobile Pages will load in any modern browser or app webview. AMP files take advantage of various technical and architectural approaches that prioritize speed to provide a faster experience for users. The goal is not to homogenize how content looks and feels, but instead to build a more common technical core between pages that speeds up load times.

In addition, AMP files can be cached in the cloud in order to reduce the time content takes to get a user’s mobile device. Under this type of framework, publishers continue to control their content, but platforms can easily cache or mirror the content for optimal delivery speed users. Google has stated that it will provide a cache that can be used by anyone at no cost, though the cache (Google's or otherwise) is not required. Other companies may build their own cache as well.

In summary, the goal is that that the combination of limited technical functionality with a distribution system built around caching will lead to better performing pages, and increased audience development for publishers.

See "Introducing the Accelerated Mobile Pages Project, for a faster, open mobile web" - here.

Openwave: How Could MNOs Optimize Traffic in the Encryption Era?

According to Openwave Mobility "encrypted traffic travelling on many mobile networks has risen fivefold in just one year and has now reached 60% of all data. 

Based on current trends, encrypted traffic levels will exceed 80% within 12 months in several regions. This is now one of the biggest areas of concern for mobile network operators as sites such as Google, Facebook and Wikipedia use HTTPS encrypted protocols. 

The findings are based on observing and analyzing traffic trends at a number of mobile operator customers around the globe". 

Related post: "[ABI] Encryption Drives Mobile Optimization to a $40B Over 5 Year Market" - here.
 
"As networks go “dark”, carriers are unable to gain insight into the encrypted data travelling on their networks. Operators can struggle to optimize the traffic and this can seriously impact users’ Quality of Experience (QoE). Moreover, some operators are unable to apply filters to block content such as adult material or to identify video streams that could even be used for extreme purposes such as to radicalize vulnerable individuals"

John Giere [pictured], CEO, Openwave Mobility advice to MNOs: “Operators need to consider solutions that optimize the TCP/IP layer of their networks and apply smart heuristics to achieve optimization in the application layer too. There are solutions that can identify bandwidth-hungry objects, even when encrypted, and achieve 50% data savings on HD video, audio and apps. Best of all, they do not compromise subscriber privacy.” (see "Openwave Mobility: Federated SDM; Encrypted Traffic Optimization" - here)

See "Over 80% of Traffic on Mobile Networks will be Encrypted in 12 months" - here.

Google's Introduces New Compression Algorithm

 
Zoltan Szabadka [pictured], Software Engineer, Compression Team, Google announced in a post to Google's Open Source Blog a new compression algorithm ".. Brotli [code here] is a whole new data format. This new format allows us to get 20–26% higher compression ratios over Zopfli. 

In our study ‘Comparison of Brotli, Deflate, Zopfli, LZMA, LZHAM and Bzip2 Compression Algorithms’ we show that Brotli is roughly as fast as zlib’s Deflate implementation. At the same time, it compresses slightly more densely than LZMA and bzip2 on the Canterbury corpus. 

The higher data density is achieved by a 2nd order context modeling, re-use of entropy codes, larger memory window of past data and joint distribution codes. Just like Zopfli, the new algorithm is named after Swiss bakery products. Brötli means ‘small bread’ in Swiss German.

​The decompression speed vs. compression ratio.
Source: Comparison of Brotli, Deflate, Zopfli, LZMA, LZHAMand Bzip2 Compression Algorithms

The smaller compressed size allows for better space utilization and faster page loads. We hope that this format will be supported by major browsers in the near future, as the smaller compressed size would give additional benefits to mobile users, such as lower data transfer fees and reduced battery use"

Can Google Beat this ? See more: Pied Piper Waiting for the next Season! 

See "Introducing Brotli: a new compression algorithm for the internet" - here.

Google India: "strong protest" Against Including Zero Rating in Net Neutrality

Google, like other content providers, is traditionally in favor on Net Neutrality laws - see the US example - "FCC Expected to Adopt Net Neutrality this Quarter; Google Supports Neutrality" (here).

However, since the Indian regulator, TRAI is considering Zero-rating as "against the principles of Net Neutrality [see "India Planned Net Neutrality Laws" - here and "Airtel: The Internet, with Our Airtel Zero, is Neutral" - here], Google (and Facebook) seem to change sides.

Nikhil Pahwa reports to MEDIANAMA that "Google joined hands with Facebook to try and prevent the Internet and Mobile Association of India, which represents some of the largest Internet companies in India, from taking a stand that counters Zero Rating. 

According to emails exchanged between IAMAI’s Government Relations committee members, of which MediaNama has copies, Vineeta Dixit [pictured], a member of Google’s Public Policy and and Government Relations team, strongly pushed for the removal of any mention of Zero Rating from the IAMAI’s submission, as a response to the Department of Telecom’s report on Net Neutrality. Please note that Google hasn’t responded to our queries, despite multiple reminders.

..Dixit’s email to the IAMAI government relations committee, while reasoning that there is no consensus on Zero Rating, asked for its removal from the submission, saying: “We would like to register strong protest against this formulation and would request you to remove this (Zero Rating) from the submission.” Another email in that list indicates that only Facebook in the IAMAI has taken a stand supporting Zero Rating, and, funnily enough, STAR has taken positions both supporting and being non-committal on Zero Rating. This is a bizarre shift in STAR’s position, given that it had written to the TRAI saying that instead of telcos being paid for allowing Internet content (via Zero Rating), it should be telecom operators that pay content providers"/


See "Google joins Facebook in trying to prevent IAMAI from taking strong anti-Zero Rating stand" - here.

Sandvine: NA Internet is Concentrated Around 3 Content Providers

Mobile Vs. Fixed: While Ericsson that sees "Facebook and 4 Other Apps" (here) in mobile networks, Sandvine sees (in North America's Fixed networks) much higher usage stats for Netflix, and claims that the internet is used to serve Netflix, Google and Facebook.

In its "latest Global Internet Phenomena Report focusing on North America and Latin America. The report is based on data from a selection of Sandvine’s 250-plus communications service provider (CSP) customers" Sandvine finds that:

• Netflix continues to slowly increase its domination of North American fixed networks, accounting for 36.5% of downstream traffic in the peak evening hours
   
• In Latin American, two companies, Facebook and Google, now control over 60% of total mobile traffic in the region

• BitTorrent continues to see a decline in fixed access bandwidth share, and now accounts for only 6.3% of total traffic in North America, and 8.5% in Latin America
   
• Netflix’s recent decision to encrypt their service will result in the majority of Internet traffic in Latin America and North America being encrypted in 2016 (see "Sandvine: Netflix Brings us to the Encrypted Age" - here)

See "Sandvine: In The Americas, Netflix + Google + Facebook = The Internet?" - here.

Google (regretfully) Shuts Down PageSpeed and Recommends 10+ Alternatives

In 2011, Google announced PageSpeed, a new optimization service, bringing CDN-like benefits to small web sites owners developers (see "Google Optimizes Web sites and Brings CDN Service to the Masses" - here),

Apparently, this was not a huge success, and Google annouced recently that "After 4.5 years of service, the PageSpeed Service team regretfully decided that the time had come to re-focus their efforts elsewhere and on 5th May announced that PageSpeed Service will be turned down. If you are using PageSpeed Service, you must change your DNS before 3rd August 2015 or your site(s) will become completely unavailable on that date."

Google suggests on of the following alternatives: 

• Provider Hosted PageSpeed - Many web hosting providers already integrate PageSpeed. If you are using such a web hosting provider, check your provider’s documentation. It may be as simple as checking a box in your provider’s control panel.
   
• Server side modules - There are PageSpeed modules for many common web servers. If you run your own web server, you may wish to install one of these.
   
• Apache - Google has developed the open-source Apache module mod_pagespeed. Pre-built binary modules for Apache 2.2 and 2.4 are available. For more information, click here.
   
• Nginx - Google has also developed a plugin for Nginx. Due to the nature of Nginx, it must be compiled from source. You can read the instructions here.
   
• IIS - The folks over at WeAmp have a commercial port of PageSpeed to Microsoft IIS. You can learn more about it at www.iispeed.com.
   
• Apache Traffic Server - WeAmp has ported PageSpeed to Apache Traffic server. More information, including build instructions, can be found at www.atsspeed.com.
   
• OpenLiteSpeed - OpenLiteSpeed supports a PageSpeed module that you can compile and load into your webserver. Please see their instructions here.
   
• Cloud based alternatives - If you wish to continue using cloud-based product, EdgeCast Edge Optimizer [see "CDN Announcements: EdgeCast Shows 77% Performance Improvement w/Integrated Google’s PageSpeed" - here] integrates Google PageSpeed with their CDN offering. Alternatively, many CDNs offer comparable functionality that does not use PageSpeed technology.

See "Turndown information for PageSpeed Service" - here.

Sandvine: Netflix Brings us to the Encrypted Age

Sandvine released a new paper on encrypted Internet traffic. Based on data collected for a live, representative network in North America, the research findings and projections are:

• Netflix’s recent decision to encrypt their traffic will result in over two-thirds of North American Internet traffic being encrypted in 2016
   
• YouTube is the largest source of encrypted traffic in North America, and still a significant contributor of unencrypted traffic
   
• Google Play traffic is encrypted, preventing the ability for third-parties to identify the apps, movies, and music being consumed by subscribers. Apple’s iTunes traffic remains unencrypted.
   
• The simplicity of the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s “Let’s Encrypt” program, due to launch in mid-2015, will help drive encryption adoption among smaller sites

See "Sandvine: Two-Thirds Of North American Internet Traffic Will Be Encrypted In 2016" - here.

FCC Expected to Adopt Net Neutrality this Quarter; Google Supports Neutrality

Grant Gross [pictured] reports to NetworkWorld that "The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will adopt net neutrality rules in early 2015, maybe as soon as February, several observers believe, but few people want to predict what those rules will look like .. It appears that the FCC will move forward with net neutrality rules in the first quarter of 2015.

.. There's no consensus about the direction the FCC should take, however. Congressional Republicans, large broadband providers and a significant number of people filing comments with the agency have urged commissioners to back away from reclassifying broadband as a regulated public utility, like Obama and other strong net neutrality advocates have called for.

.. So where does this leave the FCC? Chairman Tom Wheeler said recently he has no set timeline for moving forward on net neutrality rules. The FCC should act quickly, but also make sure any rules it creates will stand up to potential court challenges, he told reporters in early December". 

See "Experts: FCC will adopt net neutrality rules in early 2015" - here.

In other news - Google position on Net Neutrality.

[TechNavio]: Transparent Cache Market to Grow at 31% CAGR

A new report by TechNavio finds that ".. Transparent caching is a solution that enables the service provider to offload a significant amount of content traffic by storing a cached copy of the popular content close to the edge of the network, which is delivered to the user directly from the edge of the network rather than from the source. It is invisible to both the content originator and the end user, hence the name. 

TechNavio's analysts forecast the Global Transparent Caching market to grow at a CAGR of 31.3 percent over the period 2013-2018".

TechNavio identifies Blue Coat Systems (here), Juniper Networks, PeerApp (here) and Qwilt (here) as key vendors and Akamai, Alcatel-Lucent (here), Allot Communications (here), ARA Networks, Brocade, BTI Systems (here), Cisco Systems (see "Cisco Partners with PeerApp" - here), Fortinet, Google (here), Huawei (here), Level 3 (here), SuperLumin Networks, Swiftserve (here), VidScale as prominent vendors

See "Global Transparent Caching Market 2014-2018" - here.

How did Cable ONE Get Google's "YouTube HD Verified" Certification?

Cable ONE announced that "Google recently rated Cable ONE High Speed Internet “YouTube HD Verified” - a certification given only to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who consistently offer a connection stable enough to stream HD (720p) video without interruption or buffering .. Cable ONE offers speeds ranging from 50Mbps to 70Mbps - ideal for streaming multiple movies or videos at the same time, offering more power for online games, and giving customers the ability to share photos in the blink of an eye." (See "Google Rates Cable ONE 'YouTube HD Verified'" - here).

Brian Santo, reporting to CED Magazine, adds: "Brad Ottley. Cable One’s director of internet operations, said that Cable One delivers YouTube video through a peering arrangement with Level 3. In a written exchange, Ottley attributed Cable One’s results with Google/YouTube to “Low latency with Level 3 and Internet speeds of 50MB contribute to our YouTube HD Verified status. Transparent caching is a technique for smoothing out the delivery of web-based content (video and otherwise). Ottley said Cable One used transparent caching only in its system in Fargo".

See"Cable One excels at delivering YouTube, says Google" - here.

Qwilt: "Open Transparent Caching" vs. Content Providers' "Black Boxes"

Some quotes from a GigaOm post with Qwilt's CEO, Alon Maor [pictured]:

• Since launching Qwilt in 2011, I’ve seen online video grow to be one of the hardest challenges network operators face today. In my role as CEO, I’ve overseen Qwilt’s engagements with more than 150 network operator customers worldwide - some of whom are experiencing 90% growth of video year over year which translates to 60% growth of their overall internet traffic [see "[Sandvine] NA Cord-Cutters Stream 3 Hours of Video a Day" - here]. This presents not only a tremendous opportunity, but also its own set of challenges.
   
• .. content providers like Netflix and Google now regularly publish ISP rankings that expose both the best and worst performing ISPs by region .. Ultimately, these rankings ensure accountability lies with the network operator instead of the content provider when the consumer’s experience is unsatisfactory [not always .. - see "Netflix - Speed to Comcast Customers Continue to Surge" - here] and network performance is the cause.
   
• A number of US cable operators, including Mediacom Communications [here], have deployed transparent caching technology to leverage the value of caching video deep in their networks, close to consumers.

• Transparent caching deployed inside operator networks embraces an open architecture. This infrastructure is transparent, universal, neutral, trusted and secure. This open architecture stands in contrast to the closed cache systems operated by some content providers today which appear as black boxes to network operators [see "Netflix CDN Customers have More Fun" - here].
  
  These closed caches systems address only one content provider at a time and, therefore, reduce the ability of operators to optimize traffic on their networks. So, for example, content streamed from Content Provider A will not be cached by Content Provider G’s closed cache.
   
• Content providers are considering further steps to obscure their content. Indeed, last November, Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman said, “Encrypting everything could end government censorship for a decade.”

See "Will cable operators, CDNs and ISPs make or break the future of online streaming video?" - here.

Google - "we invite content providers to hook up their networks directly to ours"

A post to Google's Fiber blog by Jeffrey Burgan, Director of Network Engineering, describes what Google does to eliminate "buffering" without paid Fast Lanes - "We also partner with content providers (like YouTube, Netflix, and Akamai) to make the rest of your video’s journey shorter and faster. (This doesn't involve any deals to prioritize their video ‘packets’ over others or otherwise discriminate among Internet traffic — we don't do that)"

One question remains - what about all other content providers? how would startups compete with the giants?

"So that your video doesn’t get caught up in this possible congestion, we invite content providers to hook up their networks directly to ours. This is called ‘peering,’ and it gives you a more direct connection to the content that you want .. We have also worked with services like Netflix so that they can ‘colocate’ their equipment in our Fiber facilities .. We give companies like Netflix and Akamai free access to space and power in our facilities and they provide their own content servers .. we also don’t charge because it’s really a win-win-win situation. It’s good for content providers because they can deliver really high-quality streaming video to their customers .. most importantly, we do this because it gives Fiber users the fastest, most direct route to their content"

See "Behind the scenes with Google Fiber: Working with content providers to minimize buffering" - here.

Ruckus Launches NFV based WLAN Controller; to be Used by Google

Ruckus Wireless unveiled the "industry’s first carrier-class virtualized wireless LAN (WLAN) controller, the Ruckus virtual SmartCell™ Gateway (vSCG), designed to streamline the creation of highly scalable and resilient cloud-based wireless LAN (WLAN) services .. designed for use with Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi ZoneFlex™ access points (APs), the Ruckus vSCG runs as a virtual application within either the KVM (Kernel-base Virtual Machine) or VMware vSphere virtualization environments .. Managed WLAN services represent a major revenue opportunity for MSPs as businesses of all types are looking to outsource this function". 

GigaOm reports that "Google is working with Ruckus Wireless to build a Wi-Fi network in the cloud" (here) - "It’s building a virtual Wi-Fi network in the cloud that could connect hundreds of thousands of wireless nodes".

".. The Ruckus virtual SmartCell Gateway was designed from the beginning for carrier-class deployments. In addition to being highly scalable, reliable, and easily manageable, the Ruckus vSCG can also support value added Smart Wireless Services such as location based services and analytics like Ruckus SPoT™ Smart Positioning Technology and Ruckus SmartCell Insight (SCI), provide data plane flexibility, and carrier-class features like Hotspot 2.0 and multi-tenant support. The WLAN control plane traffic is handled within the vSCG virtual appliance layer, while the WLAN data plane traffic may be forwarded via either centralized or distributed paths. This provides for some Wi-Fi user traffic to be forwarded directly from the AP to the Internet, while other traffic is forwarded to an operator, partner, or enterprise network for additional handling.

The Ruckus virtual SmartCell Gateway (Ruckus vSCG) will be available starting in June, based on a perpetual software license fee of $995 USD for each instance of the vSCG deployed, plus a perpetual license fee of $100 USD per each Ruckus ZoneFlex access point installed in each network. 

See "Ruckus Launches the virtual SmartCell Gateway for Carrier-Class WLAN Management in the Cloud" - here.

Business Intelligence: Akamai (32%), Limelight (20%) Lead the NA CDN Traffic

A new report by Mark Hoelzel [pictured], Research Analyst, Business Intelligence, finds that:

• More and more video traffic is flowing through this new infrastructure [CDN]: The content delivery networks or CDNs will collectively account for nearly three-fifths of consumer Internet traffic in the U.S. in 2014.
   
• Pricing is complicated: Pricing for CDNs and for the more specialized transit providers that optimize video delivery, balancing performance and cost, varies a great deal. These players offer plans based on factors like bandwidth, time of day, and volume. Bandwidth is the key factor in pricing, but far from the only one. And special agreements dictate quality parameters.
   
• Which is why more and more content providers are building their own CDNs: Google and Netflix have these in place, and rumors are building that Apple is also assembling its own infrastructure.
    
  
   
• Peering agreements are the big point of contention: The price of connecting video pipes directly has become a fraught issue in the video world. Netflix is striking up agreements with ISPs [Verizon, Comcast] to guarantee video performance, but at the same time crying foul that they have to do so. Regulators seem undecided on whether this is a good practice. We dive into the hard business decisions driving the debate.
   
• All the sides — content providers, transit providers, and ISPs — have misrepresented the mechanics and economics of the digital video industry in the context of "net neutrality." We expect more peering agreements that balance the needs of both — and the consumer. The disputes over video streaming fees boil down to who should pay for the exploding popularity of streaming video, and at what quality of service.

See "The Online Video Ecosystem Explained: The Main Players And Conflicts In A Fast-Growing Industry" - here.

[TeleGeography]: Private Networks Drive Demand for Int'l Bandwidth (+39% in 2013)

TeleGeography reports that ".. demand for international bandwidth grew 39 percent to 138 Tbps in 2013, a 4.5-fold increase from the 30 Tbps of bandwidth used globally in 2009.Internet backbones remain the primary users of international bandwidth, accounting for 75 percent of demand in 2013. However, the drivers of international bandwidth demand are changing. 

As private network operators, including large content providers like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, expand their internal networks, their bandwidth requirements increasingly exceed those of the largest carriers .. Global network expansion has undergone a long-term shift in focus, from connecting users to users, to linking users to data centers and—increasingly—data centers to each other".

See "New global network builders emerge" - here.

Google: "Almost 40% of YouTube’s traffic now comes from mobile"

Some quotes from Google's Q3 2013 earning call, made by Larry Page, CEO:

• "..  We’ve also making great progress across devices with Youtube. Almost 40% of Youtube’s traffic now comes from mobile, up from 6% two years ago. And in August we updated our Youtube apps for android and iOS. You can now leave a video playing at the bottom of your screen while you explore other content.

• .. That’s why I love Chromecast which we launched in July and immediately became a best seller. On your phone, tablet or laptop and start playing some music from Youtube or a show from Google play or Netflix. One click the content is there on the bigger screen in your home, your TV, all for just $35"
   
• YouTube has grown over 75% over the past two years

See "Google's CEO Discusses Q3 2013 Results - Earnings Call Transcript", by SeekingAlpha - here. 

NSN Warns MNOs: OTT Outages Increases Signaling (20X!)

A blog post by Gerald Reddig [pictured], Head of Smart Labs Marketing, Nokia Solutions and Networks, reports that "Recent OTT service outages in cloud service provided by Google hit mobile operator radio access networks with an unexpectedly high signaling load. Online services rely entirely on the service availability in large data centers provided by Google, Amazon and Microsoft, for example.

NSN Smart Labs verified that a cloud service outage can trigger smart phones to generate signaling loads up to 20 times greater than normal. This is an important heads up for mobile operators to prevent chain reactions that could lead to network outages .. For the test, NSN Smart Labs utilized one popular high-end Android smart phone. Now multiply that signaling storm by thousands of smart phones simultaneously and radio access networks would definitely be compromised".

See "OTT service blackouts trigger signaling overload in mobile networks" - here.

Sandvine and Procera: Google is not (yet?) 40% of the Internet

Right after the 5 minutes Google outage, there were several reports showing a significant decline of the total internet traffic, up to 40% (see "Google Outage Caused ???% Drop in Internet Traffic" - here).

Few days later, Sandvine and Procera Networks provide their own observations:

• Sandvine - a blog post by Dan Deeth: "Everybody relax. That Google outage on Friday likely did not cause global consumer internet traffic to instantly drop by 40%. Might it have still been significant? Absolutely .. While Google is major mover of Internet traffic, and the outage likely impacted many total subscribers, because its total duration was between 1-5 minutes, the overall impact on total Internet use for the day was negligible".
  
  See "Traffic Spotlight: Google Outage"  - here

Source: Sandvine

• Procera - post by Cam Cullen: "Did the Internet Really Go Away last Friday? No, it really did not. There was, however, a noticeable drop in many networks, and some appeared to see a longer lasting outage than others. The examples below all show pointed dips during the outage (time zone adjusted from 1800 to 1900)".
  
  See "Google Outage: Did the Internet Really Go Away last Friday?" - here.

Source: Procera Networks

Google Outage Caused ???% Drop in Internet Traffic

Last month I had a post showing statistics collected by DeepField according to which "Google now accounts for nearly 25% of Internet traffic on average" (here). A short outage in some of Google's services yesterdays provides another insight into on Google's dominance of the internet.

•  DeepField's Craig Labovitz (see "Googalapse" - here) provides:  "A quick graph of Google’s outage today. The below graph shows traffic to Google data centers across a diverse set of large North American providers .. The graph does not include Google Global Cache traffic which provides a a large share of YouTube requests .. Overall, anonymous data from providers in North America showed a 10-15% drop in overall Internet traffic volumes during the outage" 

• GoSquared Engineering (see "Google’s downtime caused a 40% drop in global traffic" - here) concludes that "Google.com was down for a few minutes between 23:52 and 23:57 BST on 16th August 2013. This had a huge effect in the number of pageviews coming into GoSquared’s real-time tracking – around a 40% drop, as this graph of our global pageviews per minute shows.