Google opens window to 'where Internet lives'

This undated photo provided by Google shows a Google data center in Hamina, Finland. Google is opening a virtual window into the secretive data centers that serve as its nerve center. -- PHOTO: AP

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Google on Wednesday gave its users a first-ever view of its data centres, with a virtual visit of its server farms around the world from the United States (US) heartland to Finland.

The Internet giant posted a series of photographs and "street views" of a half-dozen data centres on a page called "Where the Internet Lives," at http:www.google.com/about/datacenters/gallery/#/.

"We literally get dozens if not hundreds of requests for data center tours" from journalists, technologists and others, said Joe Kava, senior director of Google data centres.

"We can't do that. The security and privacy of our users data is our foremost concern. But since we can't accommodate the public coming inside we wanted to bring the inside out to the public."