Introducing Google Public DNS

[oz]

Google now has their own public DNS servers available for anyone that wants to make use of them:

Official Google Blog: Introducing Google Public DNS

Google Code Blog: Introducing Google Public DNS: A new DNS resolver from Google

It appears that they'll being doing the redirects with any web users who accidentally type in the wrong URL into their browsers so that they can make some money from advertisers just like most ISPs are doing these days.

Configuration instructions can be found here:

Using Google Public DNS

I do like their DNS IP addresses!

[bigtomrodney]

I'll have to check it out, I use OpenDNS now but I'm open to switching

[oz]

I'll have to check it out, I use OpenDNS now but I'm open to switching

Yeah, I'm interested to hear what you think of their new service.

When I said I like their DNS addresses above, I didn't mean that I've tried them yet, but that I like the actual digits of their addresses because they should be easy to remember:

8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

I'll probably try them within the next day or two myself.

[oz]

It seems like any service that is Google based quickly becomes a topic for controversy because of potential privacy issues:

Google Public DNS and Your Privacy - PC World

Personally, I'm glad that some users continue to be concerned over privacy issues.

[darkrose0510]

It makes sense that Google has public nameservers. After all, what do you think their (web based) chrome OS will use as a default resolver?

[oz]

Google is claiming that their DNS service is faster than the competitors so hopefully this will spark some further competition with name resolving speeds. I'm all for speed gains of any kind when online and a few micro-seconds saved on every linked clicked can add up after lots of clicking.

[elija]

Another way for Google to track everything you do on-line. Just so a company that needs to remind itself to "don't be evil" every single day can sell more advertising.

I'm off to fashion a thicker tin foil hat now.

[bigtomrodney]

Google is claiming that their DNS service is faster than the competitors so hopefully this will spark some further competition with name resolving speeds.

This can only be a good thing. I'm still trying to explain OpenDNS to people, but the Google brand will go a lot further with regular non-techie dudes and dudettes.

When I said I like their DNS addresses above, I didn't mean that I've tried them yet, but that I like the actual digits of their addresses because they should be easy to remember:
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

That's something I think is great. I still have to double check the OpenDNS addresses sometimes, but at least I know now that I don't need a DNS server to find a DNS server

[oz]

Yeah, BigTom... I'm using them now and they seem pretty fast. Think I'll continue using them for a while to see how it goes.

[Lazydog]

Only way google's DNS service can be quicker is through caching. They are not doing anything special and have to be relying on someone making the DNS request before you in order to make it look like it is faster.

For example I did a test for "www.dw-world.de" and this is the results.
I do not have caching turned on as I like to have fresh results.
I have highlighted the lookup times in Blue

Google DNS

~ $ dig www.dw-world.de @8.8.8.8

; <<>> DiG 9.2.4 <<>> www.dw-world.de @8.8.8.8
; (1 server found)
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 43681
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.dw-world.de.               IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.dw-world.de.        2       IN      A       194.55.26.46

;; Query time: 158 msec
;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8)
;; WHEN: Fri Dec  4 22:33:38 2009
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 49

Direct lookup

~ $ dig www.dw-world.de

; <<>> DiG 9.2.4 <<>> www.dw-world.de
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 43274
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 2

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.dw-world.de.               IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.dw-world.de.        2       IN      A       194.55.30.46

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
www.dw-world.de.        86358   IN      NS      lp1-dns.dwelle.de.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
lp1-dns.dwelle.de.      86358   IN      A       194.55.26.56
lp1-dns.dwelle.de.      86358   IN      A       194.55.30.56

;; Query time: 145 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.1.254#53(192.168.1.254)
;; WHEN: Fri Dec  4 22:33:44 2009
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 110

You will take notice that the TTL for this record is 2 seconds that is the reason I chose this one, even if cache was turned on it would clear almost immediately. The times are mostly identical plus/minus a few seconds here and there but for the most part a direct lookup is faster.

While this might be good for popular sites, site with low TTL's it really isn't going to make a difference as Google will still need to look them up also. Google is just running a 'smoke and mirrors' game here. There service is relying on caching in order to seem like it runs faster. Every DNS server that has caching turned on is going to seem like it is fast.

Here is the down side to caching. If the site changes its ip address and is not smart about how to use DNS you will be unable to connect to that site until the cached information is cleared, either manually or through the TTL, and a new lookup is preformed. It can and will happen as a lot of DNS admins do not understand this simple part of DNS. I see this way too often.