Yep, the web is a distributed system. Yep, the web offers many services, and many providers offer the same class of service.
However, each and every one of those services are centralised in a technical sense on account of HTTP. Why might an alternative be useful? Consider the solution the Google service we're addressing is putting forward cf. Content Addressable Networking systems[0]. I can't spend any more time explaining, sorry. This might help- note the levels of centralisation in each generation of P2P systems:
However, each and every one of those services are centralised in a technical sense on account of HTTP. Why might an alternative be useful? Consider the solution the Google service we're addressing is putting forward cf. Content Addressable Networking systems[0]. I can't spend any more time explaining, sorry. This might help- note the levels of centralisation in each generation of P2P systems:
https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dga/15-440/F12/lectures/p2p-approxim...
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_addressable_network