Is Google DNS a Myth?

Google public DNS resolving services on IP addresses 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 was sold as being a faster solution for users, since caching could occur on a massive scale, but is it just a statistics gathering exercise for Google?

Using NameBench (http://code.google.com/p/namebench/), and running the test, it looks as if Google DNS is actually slower than local services, and popular global ones:

Mean Response Duration

Fastest Individual Response Duration

Response Distribution Chart (First 200ms)

Response Distribution Chart (Full)

DNS Speed testing.

DNS Speed testing.

I've often used ZoneCheck to test if DNS is set up correctly, but it doesn't give an indication of performance,
for that, I'd recommend https://www.ultratools.com/tools/dnsHostingSpeedResult - Check for "A" record response, where you should aim to get a response time of 50ms or less.

Here is a speed check of this blog, which is hosted by Google.

freenameservers.blogspot.co.uk

Name Server	AAAA	CNAME	MX	SOA	A	SPF	SRV	TXT
ns3.google.com.	38	30	38	31	31	31	31	39
ns4.google.com.	3	2	3	3	3	2	3	3
ns2.google.com.	13	13	13	13	14	12	13	13
ns1.google.com.	16	15	17	16	16	16	17	16
Min. Time(ms)	3	2	3	3	3	2	3	3
Max. Time(ms)	38	30	38	31	31	31	31	39
Avg. Time(ms)	17	15	17	15	16	15	16	17

co.uk.

ns5.nic.uk.

85 ms

nsa.nic.uk.

10 ms

ns4.nic.uk.

87 ms

ns2.nic.uk.

88 ms

ns1.nic.uk.

101 ms

ns7.nic.uk.

82 ms

ns6.nic.uk.

88 ms

nsb.nic.uk.

2 ms

nsd.nic.uk.

10 ms

nsc.nic.uk.

2 ms

ns3.nic.uk.

80 ms

Min. Time: 2 ms  Max. Time: 101 ms  Avg. Time: 57 ms

TLD Servers

ns4.nic.uk.

79 ms

ns1.nic.uk.

101 ms

ns3.nic.uk.

91 ms

ns2.nic.uk.

86 ms

ns6.nic.uk.

90 ms

nsc.nic.uk.

2 ms

ns5.nic.uk.

86 ms

nsa.nic.uk.

10 ms

nsd.nic.uk.

10 ms

nsb.nic.uk.

2 ms

ns7.nic.uk.

82 ms

Min. Time: 2 ms  Max. Time: 101 ms  Avg. Time: 58 ms

Root Servers

h.root-servers.net. (H3)

5 ms

k.root-servers.net. (k3.linx.k.ripe.net)

97 ms

a.root-servers.net. ()

231 ms

c.root-servers.net. (iad1a.c.root-servers.org)

2 ms

l.root-servers.net. (dnd01.l.root-servers.org)

92 ms

e.root-servers.net. (e5.arc.nasa.gov)

80 ms

m.root-servers.net. (M-CDG-1)

85 ms

i.root-servers.net. (s1.bnx)

92 ms

f.root-servers.net. (scl1a.f.root-servers.org)

166 ms

d.root-servers.net. (css-d.net.umd.edu)

3 ms

b.root-servers.net. (b8)

65 ms

j.root-servers.net. (jluepe1-elstk2)

139 ms

g.root-servers.net. (g.root-servers2.net)

35 ms

Min. Time: 2 ms  Max. Time: 231 ms  Avg. Time: 84 ms