[cd34]

its the reason that internet connections need to be so much larger. The proliferation of   means sending 6 characters down the line rather than one.

Its a conspiracy to make people by larger connections.

Google at one point estimated they would save millions per year by not using   and not using standards compliant html. No ", no carriage returns, etc. Although they do use   for hardspacing in their product menus, they have pretty much done what they can to make that page as small as possible.

To my knowledge, they haven't used mod_gzip/mod_deflate, but, being a market maker, I think their bandwidth costs aren't as much an issue now.