The fact that Google’s Internet presence has virtually ‘exploded’ over the years has been recently substantiated by a blog analysis of the search giant’s activities by Arbor Network’s Craig Labovitz, who has reported that the enormity of Google’s growth currently has a considerable effect on Internet traffic flows.

The analysis by Labovitz corroborates an October evaluation of the Internet scenario by his company, in its Atlas Observatory Report which said that Google’s stronghold of the Internet is evident from the fact that the company accounts for peak rates of 10 percent of all inter-domain Internet traffic which travels via Arbor servers.

Further statistics reveal that, during the year-long time-span beginning June 2007, the average traffic percentage increased from nearly 1 percent to almost 2.5 percent; and by last summer, the minimum percentage was 5 percent. Google’s Internet presence owes greatly to its 2007-acquisition of YouTube, which consumes huge volumes of video traffic.

Interestingly, as per Arbor’s February figures, more than 60 percent of Google’s traffic was being fed via direct interconnects that entwine its gigantic data centres. Moreover, Google has also been installing Google Global Cache Servers (GGCs) to extend the periphery of its network.

Commenting on the GGCs’ installation, Labovitz said: “Unlike most global carriers, Google's backbone does not deliver traffic on behalf of millions of subscribers nor thousands of regional networks and large enterprises. Google's infrastructure supports, well, only Google.”