Why Is Google Public DNS So Slow?

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Google Public DNS is certainly fast to type, 8.8.8.8, and as easy to remember as other top level DNS servers, such as 4.2.2.1. However, it's performance seems to be really lacking. That's quite odd, considering their whole reason for launching it is to have a fast DNS server for really fast web browsing. It's a great concept, but something is missing: the goal of the concept.

Have a look. That's just not a very good showing for a system that's documented to be on the other end. I used a tool called namebench, which is open source and created, apparently, as a Google 20%er project.

For kicks, I decided to run this on a dedicated server I have.

These results had a better ranking for Google DNS, but equally slow responses. That's a bit strange. It is interesting, though, that many servers are quite slow, but highly dependent on where you are and who your ISP is.

So, just why is Google Public DNS so slow, anyway? Why isn't it leaps and bounds better than other DNS servers? Is Google slacking? Or is there something else at work here? I can't imagine they'd put this out without running their own tests...

Posted by Shane on December 6, 2009 12:05 AM | Permalink