The Coming Tug of War Over the Internet

[CatWoman]

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.

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

[PDittie]

1. Thanks for posting this, Cat eom

[McCamy Taylor]

2. This will be unpopular here, but I must say it....

The GOP is going to have an ideologic problem against anything that appears to be a new "tax" and adding fees to consumers who use certain Internet services will appear to be a tax. The GOP could allow the cable companies to charge Google and Yahoo for premium quality delivery of their services---but since consumers may have already purchased items or services that tie them to one of these companies, this is going to get them pissed off, too, and seem a lot like government regulation or "Taxing" the Internet for the very first time.

And the GOP has already done a lot of non-GOP things under W.

Could this be one of the reasons that Big Business is preparing to pass the baton of party power from the GOP to the moderate wing of the Democratic party (aka GOP lite) in DC? The Dems will have no problem at all in regulating the Internet. They will do it in the name of "anti-trust".