TheTechUpload | Google, Facebook, Yahoo! and Bing Announce IPv6 Launch Commitment

Google, Facebook, Yahoo! and Bing Announce IPv6 Launch Commitment

January 18, 2012 By Justin Gianninoto Facebook, Google, Microsoft 1 comment

Several major internet players announced their commitment to the world launch of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) on June 6, 2012 where participating ISPs will reach 1% of their subscribers so that when they view participating websites, it will be using IPv6. IPv6 is the next generation Internet Protocol, which will supplant IPv4. The main reason for the switch, according to worldipv6launch.org is that:

IPv4 has approximately four billion IP addresses (the sequence of numbers assigned to each Internet-connected device). The explosion in the number of people, devices, and web services on the Internet means that IPv4 is running out of space. IPv6, the next-generation Internet protocol which provides more than 340 trillion, trillion, trillion addresses, will connect the billions of people not connected today, allow a huge range of devices to connect directly with one another, and help ensure the Internet can continue its current growth rate indefinitely.

According to a blog post from Google, ”The widespread deployment of IPv6 paves the way for connecting together the billions of devices that permeate our livesーboth fixed and mobile, from the largest cloud computing services to the smallest sensors.” Virtually all Google services will be available in IPv6. “Search, Gmail, YouTube and many more, will be available to the world over IPv6 permanently.”

Users wishing to test their IPv6 connection capability can do so on this Google page: ipv6test.google.com. And you should receive a confirmation message like this:

This is a follow-up to World IPv6 Day, which took place on June 8 2011. World IPv6 Day served as a 24-hour test for participating websites to ensure its functionality.

Check out this list of featured participants, available here.

Website operators, network operators and home router vendors wishing to participate can do so here. Please not that they are only accepting registrations through May 30.

Anyone else wishing to participate can simply visit the IPv6 website and download their support badge to spread awareness of the switch. You can also follow the World IPv6 launch on Twitter @WorldIPv6Launch.