San Francisco — Around this time last year, Google bestowed American travelers with the gift of free Wi-Fi at 47 major U.S. airports. This time, the move is a twist on a similar theme to provide free Inflight Internet to their passengers throughout the holiday season, the Google Chrome browser team announced that it has teamed up with AirTran rather than in airports.
This year, the search engine giant has teamed up with AirTran, Delta and Virgin America to offer those carriers’ passengers free in-flight Wi-Fi on every domestic flights will enjoy free Aircell Gogo Inflight Wi-Fi, courtesy of the Google Chrome team.
The promo begins from November 20, the weekend before Thanksgiving Day in the U.S., and runs until Jan. 2, 2011, said Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice president of product management, in a statement.
A Wi-Fi–enabled Delta plane. Credit: (Brian Brooks)
Chrome is programmed to be fast in every possible way: It is quick to start up from the desktop, loads Web pages in a snap and its browser window is efficient, clean and simple.
According to a Chrome press release, the promotion will cater to more than 700 planes and roughly 15 million passengers flying this holiday season as the three airlines that have equipped their entire domestic fleet with in-flight WiFi. This season marks the second straight year that Google has provided free WiFi to travelers over the holiday season, the company announced.
“On the Chrome team, we are big fans of innovations that make our lives on the web and in the browser better — and it all starts with more ubiquitous access to the Internet,” wrote Pichai.
“So for this holiday season, we have teamed up with AirTran, Delta and Virgin America to offer free Gogo Inflight Wi-Fi on every domestic flight from November 20, 2010 through January 2, 2011,” he announced.
The moment passengers log onto the GoGo Inflight Internet service, a landing page appears that displays the Chrome sponsorship. Once online, a second page will pop-up that includes links to more information about Chrome, as well as a download link and a suggestion to grab a copy of the browser once passengers reach their destination.
The complimentary Wi-Fi will be accessible to any wireless-equipped device, including smartphones, tablets and laptops.
“We are constantly working to help deliver a better web experience to users around the world,” said Pichai, in a press release. “Whether it be building a better browser with Chrome or bringing free WiFi to air travelers this holiday season, we are constantly innovating to ensure users’ access to the web is fast, simple and seamless.”
Although GoGo’s usual prices starts at $4.95 for flights of less than one-and-a-half hours, $9.95 for flights up to three hours and $12.95 for flights that last longer than three hours, depending on the length of time is probably not enough to influence your flight purchase from a cheaper ticket, broadband access might make your cramped rides more pleasant.
Nevertheless, Google is delighted to give things away, like most of its products, but now it is actually paying Wi-Fi providers to give people free internet, in the US for the holiday season.
“We were thrilled by the response from last year”s free holiday Wi-Fi program, and thought that this would be a perfect holiday gift to help you stay connected to your loved ones as you head home. You can find out more about this partnership at www.freeholidaywifi.com,” wrote Pichai, in a blog post.
However, it is not exactly an altruistic move from Google, the company will be using the program to promote its Google Chrome web browser. Last year, the search engine leader used the free Wi-Fi promotion to advertise the Google Nexus One.
Chrome can be downloaded for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux from Google’s site.