Google’s Measurement Lab and What it Means

Google today introduced Measurement Lab, a set of tools (some already working, some upcoming) for network diagnostics. To create them, Google partnered with the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, the PlanetLab Consortium, and several academic researchers.

These tools include the Network Diagnostic Tool, which tests your connection speed and gives you a diagnosis on speed issues; Glasnost, which tests whether your ISP is blocking or throttling BitTorrent connections, and Network Path and Application Diagnosis, which helps you find problems that usually plague last-mile broadband networks.

The thing is, tools of this kind have existed for years. There’s literally dozens of them, so what Google and partners are offering is nothing new.