Google, on 28 January 2009, has launched a new tool, Measurement Lab (M-Lab), which makes distributed network management easy. It lets users check and use more details about their network’s performance. People concerned with Internet regulation, including consumers, regulators, and content providers will greatly benefit from this tool. This project was jointly developed by Google, the New America Foundation, and PlanetLab, an academic consortium that focuses on next-generation networks.

Measurement Lab is an open group of distributed servers that allows users to do research into Internet speeds, latency, jitter, and blocking of BitTorrent connections. It aims to make network activity more transparent.

Initially, M-Lab is running three diagnostic tools for users. The first tool, Glasnost, will determine whether BitTorrent is being blocked or throttled and the second one, DiffProbe, will check if an ISP shows any preferences relating to traffic. NANO, the third tool, will probe if an ISP is meddling with the performance of particular users or applications.

Sascha Meinrath, the research director of the New America Foundation’s Wireless Future Program, said his organization’s role in M-Lab is to translate the data collected into meaningful and understandable information for policymakers. He added that they do not intend to use M-Lab data for any kind of political agenda. Vint Cerf, Google’s chief Internet evangelist, said that such information might be hard for some consumers to understand, but it would help them explain their Internet problems to people with more expertise.

Though the platform has three servers at this stage, by the end of 2009, it plans to increase the count to 36 servers in 12 locations around the globe.