Web getting a little less worldly, a lot less wide [View All]

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Web getting a little less worldly, a lot less wide

08:17 AM PDT on Tuesday, July 13, 2004

By ANICK JESDANUN / The Associated Press

Type "dentist" into Google from New York, and you'll get ads for dentists in the city. Try watching a Cubs baseball game from a computer in Chicago, and you'll be stymied. Pre-existing local television rights block the webcast.

The same technology is also used by a British casino to keep out the Dutch and by online movie distributors to limit viewing to where it's permitted by license, namely the United States.

The World Wide Web experience is becoming less and less worldwide: What you see and what you are allowed to do these days can depend greatly on where and even who you are.
AP photo
What you see and what you are allowed to do on the World Wide Web these days can depend greatly on where and even who you are. The Web page shown above is what a person might see when trying to view a baseball game that is restricted in their area.

Blocking visitors

As so-called geolocation technology improves, Web sites are increasingly blocking groups of visitors and carving the Web into smaller chunks - in some cases, down to a ZIP code or employer.

To privacy advocates like Jason Catlett, that technology can detect users' whereabouts isn't the most disturbing aspect of this trend. Rather, it's the fear that Web sites will try to mislead visitors.
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http://www.pe.com/business/local/stories/PE_Biz_onlineborders13.a0d9d.html