Mr. Schmidt, laying some knowledge on us. (Screencap)

Uh-oh, here comes some holiday bad news for the cable and content incumbents: Speaking today at the Dealbook conference,  chairman Eric Schmidt insisted that Google Fiber isn't just some kooky attempt to turn Kansas into a high-speed-Internet Oz. "We're running it as a business," Mr. Schmidt told moderator Andrew Ross Sorkin.

What's more, he added that it'll be available in "hopefully more cities, if we're able to expand our service." The company is trying to decide where right now, which is why Betabeat would like to take a moment to chuck our dignity and plead for Google to expand its high-speed Internet experiment to New York City.

There are loads of reasons why we should get Fiber. Loads! For one thing, there's the boost it would give Cornell Tech--an initiative Google is currently supporting. There's the company's large presence here. And citywide fiber is already on the radar of our politicos, as Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer's Start-Up City report demonstrates. (Global warming + copper wiring = a big old mess.)

Netflix streaming will be so crystal clear, it'll be like Executive Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy is right there in the room with you.

(h/t VentureBeat)

Lotsa ants. (Photo: flickr.com/pinkmoose)

The MPAA and the RIAA aren't raking in as much cash as they used to. [TechDirt]

This breed of ants works a little like the Internet. [PC World]

Time Warner is expanding its fiber network in New York City, hopefully preventing any more techies from tearing their hair out over problems getting high-speed Internet. [Wall Street Journal]

IAC has purchased About.com for $300 million, because of synergy. [The Hollywood Reporter]

America's V.P. gets no Facebook love. [Buzzfeed]

Getting your Gmail hacked is going to look like a walk in the park once hackers can rifle through your innermost thoughts. [ZDNet]

Not to stereotype or anything. (Photo: flickr.com/s_w_ellis/)

America loves, wants, needs high-speed Internet access. Witness, for example, the gnashing of teeth over Silicon Alley's poor connectivity. Rural communities are clamoring for it. The prospect is even enough to inspire outright underhandedness on the part of some cable operators.

However, across the pond, they are apparently in far less of a hurry. ZDNet reports:

"Nearly 60 percent of UK homes and small businesses have access to connections providing downloads faster than 25Mbps, the telecoms regulator said in its Communications Market Report on Wednesday. However, fewer than seven percent of premises have signed up for the super-fast services."

But then how will you stream Doctor Who on Netflix Instant?

The all-seeing eye must know all. (Photo: Link text)

Are you a Kansas City employee of Time Warner Cable? Are you also, perchance, an amateur sleuth? Well, get out your magnifying glass and your deerstalker cap, because your corporate overlord wants something investigated.

Let's back up. Kansas City is a pilot location for Google Fiber, an experiment in ultra high-speed Internet access. It's not clear entirely what Google plans to do with this fat pipe, but it seems to be making ISPs and cable providers very nervous. This is not surprising, considering that the collective rage routinely inspired by Time Warner alone could probably reignite a dying star.

But it appears that rather than sit idly by while Google wires their business model out of existence, Time Warner Cable is taking steps. For example, there is this poster, apparently from HQ, requesting any and all gossip Kansas City employees might have, published earlier today by GigaOm.

The poster cheerily encourages employees to "Share tips, rumors and rumblings about Google construction or launch activity for a chance to win $50!" It promises to hand out three gift cards a week, and adds that multiple tips are encouraged.

Those odds aren't bad, but it's probably going to take more than "a chance" to attract the real dyed-in-the-wool Sam Spade types.