Over the years we've seen no limit of specialized hardware, software or other gadgetry promising to defeat the laws of physics and speed up your Internet connection above and beyond its basic capabilities. From the "Juice Boosted" scam to Earthlink's latest absurd acceleration ploy, by and large these are all snake oil. Even well-intentioned ideas to deploy new, faster protocols 99.4% of the time wind up being little more than blistering hype. With that in mind, Google today issued a post over at the Chrome blog claiming they were working on a new protocol they insist could double the speed of everyday browsing:Of course "simulated home network connections" and "lab conditions" are no substitute for the real world, which is why Google is reaching out to the broader community to help test the new protocol, which integrates concepts such as multiplexed streams, request prioritization and HTTP header compression. Those interested can take a closer look at the protocol's white paper for some added technical specifics. From a quick read this isn't so much about replacing HTTP as it is about mutating it into something more efficient, and Google certainly is no idiot at content transfer efficiency.

Again though, -- we've seen these kinds of promises so many times -- be it compression, new protocols, or variations of existing protocols, that we're just kind of innately skeptical until we see real world application. As with any innovation, you might want to wait until Google has a working product before doling out your kisses. Certainly Google's Chrome browser will get lots and lots of added attention from the media from this announcement, so at least that's something substantive.

If you needed any further evidence as to why AT&T and Verizon are so worried about Google Voice, Lifehacker highlights how users have been using Google Voice to make unlimited wireless calls, something many of our users have been doing for a while now. You of course know that most carriers have plans that allow you to call certain favorite numbers without eroding your minutes (Friends & Family, MyFaves, A-List). So what happens when you make one of those favorite numbers your Google Voice number?

As we've explored, this is precisely the kind of threat that terrifies AT&T and Verizon. Once you've got a truly open network with open devices, voice simply becomes data, SMS becomes irrelevant, and the "phone company," at least as we know it today, dies.

If you've paid attention, you know the modern "network neutrality" debate took off in 2005, when then AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre proudly, though dumbly, proclaimed that Google got a "free ride" on his network. According to Ed, this unfairness could only be rectified by charging companies who already pay for bandwidth money to ensure their traffic reaches AT&T consumers quickly. Such a bizarre statement obviously resulted in fear that phone companies planned to act as trolls under the metaphorical Internet bridge, grumpily extorting passers by. That created a desire by content companies and consumers for laws that would prevent this from happening.

On Tuesday it was revealed that Apple had banned Google Voice from the iPhone app store. The new service has the potential to be a game changer, allowing users, among other things, to send free SMS messages and make international calls at reduced rates. The obvious conclusion was that AT&T played a role in the ban, given that SMS revenues are a massive cash cow with a limited life span the carrier wants to protect at any cost. When we asked AT&T if it was their call, they told us to ask Apple, who is too cool to comment publicly.

After acquiring VoIP outfit Grand Central back in 2007, the search giant remained rather quiet, leaving many people in our forums wondering what was going on. Last March we got an answer, the Google Blog noting that the service had been repackaged as Google Voice. Google Voice aims to make Google your hub for all things phone and voicemail, something that obviously worries existing telecom companies -- who've already been working hard to smear the company for Google's positions on things like net neutrality and white space broadband. Google this morning took to the Today show, where NBC's Matt Laurer accidentally announced the service would be available to everyone, everywhere. That's not really the case: according to the Google Voice Twitter account, only invitations to those on the service's reservation list are going out today.