Q: How do you link Google, Facebook and Twitter together? A: Using an optical fiber-powered Internet

We live in a socially networked world – a world where you think of Facebook when somebody asks you, “What’s the latest Book you read?”; or the only time we think of space is when we are on Myspace; a world where all our linking is beginning to happen through Linkedin; in fact, when my wife said the birds are tweeting, my response was, “Tell them, I am busy on Google Buzz and Orkut, I will tweet back later!”

There are over 105 million registered Twitter users who send over 50 million tweets each day. Last month for the first time, Facebook became the most visited website in the US, for a whole week. With over 400 million users, Facebook Nation can claim to be the third most populous nation on Earth. Similarly, some estimates suggest that Technorati has indexed over 130 million blogs since 2002. In Google’s Annual Report, the Founders’ Letter talks about Youtube getting 1 billion daily views (Page 4, 2009 Annual report). That’s a lot of zeroes…

Speaking of Google, their recent RFI about connecting 50,000 to 500,000 people in the US with ultra high-speed broadband networks, saw over 1100 communities and cities submitting their applications as being the ideal location to set up the experimental network in. Google has also acknowledged that Fiber is going to be the only media that can support the speeds and bandwidths that we are going to need in the future (Annual Report, page 4/5).

We like the sound of that… …

Implications: The market for optical fiber cable was 171 million kms in 2009, according to CRU. The US’s share has been going down over the years, primarily because of the increased consumption of fiber in emerging economies of China, India, Russia, etc. This announcement should make AT&T, Verizon, Qwest, Level 3, Comcast, and all the other players – big or small – to push their fiber investments to the top of their priority list. The US government is doing its bit as well – a lot of the stimulus funds being released are being channelized towards middle-mile or last-mile fiber networks.

Can the US become the biggest consumer of optical fiber once again? It doesn’t hurt to try… … …