Google has recently launched their own version of public DNS servers, much like OpenDNS. After trying them out briefly this morning, the response time does seem to be very quick from an actual user point of view (browser seems to start downloading sooner than it used to do.)
Google even provides a quote to help people who don’t fully get DNS to understand it, kind of:
Most of us aren’t familiar with DNS because it’s often handled automatically by our Internet Service Provider (ISP), but it provides an essential function for the web. You could think of it as the switchboard of the Internet, converting easy-to-remember domain names – e.g., www.google.com – into the unique Internet Protocol (IP) numbers – e.g., 74.125.45.100 – that computers use to communicate with one another.
Follow the Google guide to get started here.