Google sets sights on IPv6
Google announced Wednesday on its official blog that Google search is now available over an IPv6 connection. What?
Right now, much of the world relies on the fourth iteration of the Internet Protocol, also known as IPv4, for its Web connections. The problem is, IPv4 facilitates only about 4 billion IP addresses, not enough for every person in the world to have one.
Google and others estimate that the IPv4 capacity will be "exhausted" sometime in 2011, which means that IPv6--which will enable each individual person on Earth to have nearly 3 billion networks--will potentially take over.
"We hope it's only a matter of time before IPv6 is widely deployed," the Google blog post read. "We will be doing our part."
The IPv6 Google search is available here, but if you don't have an IPv6 connection, it'll come up as a broken link.
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. E-mail Caroline. 
