By Sage McHugh on November 12, 2009 in
This holiday season, Google is giving the travelers the gift of free Wi-Fi at 47 airports nationwide. The promotion began on November 10 and will run until January 15. You can view a full list of participating airports at Google's free holiday Wi-Fi site. According to Engadget.com, this arrangement is "expected to cover about 35% of all US travelers."
In addition, travelers can continue to spread the holiday cheer. If you log on to the networks in any of the participating airports, you will have the option to make a donation to Engineers Without Borders, the One Economy Corporation or the Climate Savers Computing Initiative. To boot, Google will match the donations up to $250,000. Note that you don't need to make a donation to use the Wi-Fi.
Google says they're doing this "to make the holiday travel crush a little easier and more pleasant." The search giant struck a similar deal with Virgin America earlier this year, providing passengers with free in-flight Internet access during the same time period.
Before you use one of Google's free Wi-Fi hotspots to make a charitable donation, or conduct any other transaction potentially involving sensitive personal information, make sure you've taken the necessary steps to secure your laptop. To that end, PC World runs down a list of precautions you should take to protect yourself and your data if you're going to use Google's airport Wi-Fi (or any other public hotspots, for that matter.) It's a good, quick read that's well worth your time.
