Google made the announcement that they will begin offering access to Google via IPv6. In short, IPv6 is the next version of the Internet’s protocols [or how computers communicate with the Internet.]
Here is a diagram of how Google is explaining what IPv6 is.
To qualify for Google over IPv6, your network must have good IPv6 connectivity to Google. Multiple direct interconnections are preferred, but a direct peering with multiple backup routes through transit or multiple reliable transit connections may be acceptable. Your network must provide and support production-quality IPv6 networking and provide access to a substantial number of IPv6 users. Additionally, because IPv6 problems with users’ connections can cause users to become unable to access Google if Google over IPv6 is enabled, we expect you to troubleshoot any IPv6 connection problems that arise in your or your users’ networks.
If your network meets these requirements and you’d like to receive Google over IPv6, please let us know at google-ipv6@google.com.
So you cannot automatically start using Google over IPv6, but you need to request access to do it.
It’s going to be quite a while before the entire Internet is switched over to IPv6, but this is just the start of it. Many IRC networks also accept IPv6 connections in addition to IPv4 [what we currently reside on] connections. Yes, yes, I know, “what happened to IPv5?” Raffi explains it quite well over at O’Reilly.
Oh, and why not just enable IPv6 and let the traffic flow? Google already has an answer to this.
We continuously conduct detailed measurements on the quality of IPv6 connectivity, and our latest results show that making Google services generally available over IPv6 at this time would lead to connection problems and increased latency for a small number of users. User experience is very important to us, and we do not want to impact users on networks that do not yet fully support IPv6. We will continue to re-evaluate the situation as the IPv6 Internet evolves.
via FAQ
