Photos: Google airport lounge takes off

We go behind the scenes of Google's latest venture - a free Internet area in London's Heathrow Airport where travellers can get to grips with some of the company's applications

Google Space is a trial project that offers passengers free acess to applications such as Google Earth, Google Mail and Picasa.

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Google claims the project will allow passengers to turn their dead time into highly useful time by using its applications — such as Google Maps and Google Local — to prepare for their trip.

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The 10 Samsung laptops in the temporary installation will be manned from 0700 to 1900 by Google employees from across the organisation, with some flown in especially to help out.

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Google claims that passengers will be able to view their destination before they get there using Google Earth, which displays satellite images.

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Although the Internet access is free, Google is getting something out of the experiment by monitoring how people use its applications.

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Google claims that the average traveller wastes over nine hours a year waiting for flights at UK airports.

Story URL: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/0,1000000097,39237552,00.htm