At Mobile Pipeline today, I write about Google's broad mobile plans into which Wi-Fi fits as a piece: Google's Wi-Fi bid for San Francisco has been billed as a one-off, and after speaking to their business-development guy responsible for it, I'm convinced it is. What he said quite openly--and that he said many reporters haven't been very interested in--is that Google would use SF as a place to assemble a platform of services for municipal networks that would have revenue on the back end. This set of services could be offered to companies like EarthLink--with which they have lines of communications--a way to generate revenue immediately beyond subscriber revenue.
In the article, I also cover Google's phone strategy, which, while not unique and not as broad a portfolio as Yahoo and not as deep as some independent firms, is part and parcel of their overall approach.