Imagine this: You’re stuck at the mall, waiting for your significant other to stop boring you with whatever store they’ve dragged you to so you can start dragging them to stores you like and boring them.
Yes, the mall sucks.
Anyway, you decide to do some web-browsing. Instead of burning data, you simply flip on the WiFi, stare at an ad for something, and then it’s all you can eat.
How is this wondrous thing happening? For reasons of pure greed. But at least Google is giving us something awesome in exchange for testing out something incredibly evil.
Google has teamed up with Boingo to experiment with Google Offers.
San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tampa, and Seattle will be among the lucky few cities with free WiFi in their malls. …customers connecting the WiFi will be asked to sign up for Google Offers, but will be able to connect regardless of whether they sign up or not.
You know Boingo as the people who give you WiFi in airports and on planes, and also overcharge you for it in hotels. It’s a pretty cool idea, but we’re personally hoping Google just goes with sponsored WiFi everywhere. Especially since it’s not like American malls will be around much longer anyway.