The Coming Tug of War Over the Internet

[Dover]

The Coming Tug of War Over the Internet

By Christopher Stern

Sunday, January 22, 2006; Page B01

Do you prefer to search for information online with Google or Yahoo? What about bargain shopping -- do you go to Amazon or eBay? Many of us make these kinds of decisions several times a day, based on who knows what -- maybe you don't like bidding, or maybe Google's clean white search page suits you better than Yahoo's colorful clutter.

But the nation's largest telephone companies have a new business plan, and if it comes to pass you may one day discover that Yahoo suddenly responds much faster to your inquiries, overriding your affinity for Google. Or that Amazon's Web site seems sluggish compared with eBay's.

The changes may sound subtle, but make no mistake: The telecommunications companies' proposals have the potential, within just a few years, to alter the flow of commerce and information -- and your personal experience -- on the Internet. For the first time, the companies that own the equipment that delivers the Internet to your office, cubicle, den and dorm room could, for a price, give one company priority on their networks over another.

This represents a break with the commercial meritocracy that has ruled the Internet until now. We've come to expect that the people who own the phone and cable lines remain "neutral," doing nothing to influence the content on your computer screen. And may the best Web site win.

For more than a year, public interest groups, including the Consumer Federation and Consumers Union, have been lobbying Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to write the concept called "network neutrality" into law and regulation. Google and Yahoo have joined their lobbying efforts. And online retailers, Internet travel services, news media and hundreds of other companies that do business on the Web also have a lot at stake...cont'd

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/21/AR2006012100094.html

[NVMojo]

1. this story made me ill when I read it two days ago

[izzie]

2. It did me also but we know it is coming

Face it. Where money is to be made and so much freedom is about you are going to have the people who wish the money and the people who wish to run things as they see fit move in. It is a thing we see with every thing,From Churches, armies to educations and printing books. Some one has always wished to control it and some to make money some times both the same people.