60-year, $1.16B lease

http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/11/technology/google-navy-blimp-hangar/

<added>

Remember this?
http://www.google.com/loon/

Fiber too slow to deploy.  Global ISP?

I saw that this morning and wondered what the plan was. Loon likes like it yeah?

I have such mixed feelings about this.  That hangar is a local landmark and could be seen from miles away.  It is incredibly huge, when I was a teen I was at an air show where they actually had hot air balloons going up and down inside it.   There was talk that they were going to tear it down.  Apparently it was filled with asbestos, there was enough money to strip it, but not enough to rebuild.  I'm glad it is being saved, too bad it is being fueled by PPC money.

If anybody is interested in reading about the place: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangar_One_%28Mountain_View,_California%29

I guess loon testing, rather than a serious deployment.

I still think loon will provide fairly localised service.  Based on the early numbers they released it would have required millions of balloons to cover africa alone. I don't think it is a global solution.

Maybe they'll sublet it to Musk
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/193959-musks-next-mission-blanketing-the-world-with-cheap-internet-access-via-700-low-orbit-satellites

https://gigaom.com/2014/11/17/google-partners-with-telstra-to-test-project-loon-in-australia/

I'm thinking 3 things

- Being an ISP... more data for them
- They're pretty paranoid about 3rd parties getting access to 'their' data
- At a certain altitude there's tax exemption, not sure how that plays out in the international arena

Are they still a one trick pony?

>pony

One trick with a little prancing on the side

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/17/technology/google-search-ad-growth-slows.html

>pony

They'll likely be a strong contender in the race for self-driving cars.
They'll likely be a strong contender in the race for robotics.

They'll likely build a computer that decides we're a threat to it.

So their prancing on the side is Skynet.

>Skynet

Pretty much.

>blimp hangar

What about the hangar in your back yard RC? That is still being used for blimps, right?

Not RC's hanger >> NO NO NO

They'll likely build a computer that decides we're a threat to it.
If it is EVIL they will DO IT