Bad News for Regular Internet Users

[NorthCarolina]

Google & Verizon's Evil Plan Is Really Bad News for Regular Internet Users

AlterNet / By Scott Thill

The firestorm over tech giant Google and telco titan Verizon's self-interested proposal to arbitrarily codify a pay-to-play Internet will dominate the news in the coming months, as net neutrality steps onto a mainstream media stage crowded with Muslim mosques and other distracting fodder. But now that other telcos like warrantless wiretapper AT&T have quickly endorsed Googlezon's proposal, it was left to Jon Stewart on a recent episode of the Daily Show to sum up the mammoth migraine awaiting us all: "We're fucked."

My colleague Ryan Singel at Wired had a similar take, calling the one-time staunch net neutrality defender Google a "carrier-humping net neutrality surrender monkey." Both assessments are dead-on: By giving up its previous commitment to open networks and devices in both the wireline and the wireless space, Google -- arguably the most powerful tech company in the world -- has simply cashed in its neutrality chips, nearly fully compromised "Don't Be Evil" corporate philosophy, and screwed us all. The irony is that the Internet we've become used to over the last couple decades has made Google and Verizon powerhouses in the first place.

<---snip--->

"The greatest danger of the fast lane is that it completely changes competition on the net," Wu explained in a New York Times roundtable on Google and Verizon's sweetheart deal. "The advantage goes not to the firm that's actually the best, but the one that makes the best deal with AT&T, Verizon, or Comcast. Had there been a two-tier Internet in 1995, likely, Barnes and Noble would have destroyed Amazon, Microsoft Search would have beaten out Google, Skype would have never gotten started -- the list goes on and on. We'd all be the losers."

Or as IO9's Annalee Newitz put it: "Googlezon has succeeded in creating a caste system in the online world, and the public is the lowest caste of all." Cue Jon Stewart's disturbing truth. No laugh track please.

Link to complete article: http://www.alternet.org/media/147953/google_%26_verizon%27s_evil_plan_is_really_bad_news_for_regular_internet_users/

[aquart]

1. Slay the dragons!

And feed the multitudes with dragon soup.

[nightrain]

2. antidote--where possible cancel verizon and stop using/supporting google--gmail, etc.

I will be closing all my gmail accounts very soon.

[Uncle Joe]

3. Net Neutrality must be protected and this should be a primary issue this November.

Any political leader opposing Net Neutrality should be challenged aggressively, the FCC should reclassify the Internet as being part of the communications spectrum, Congress should pass a law giving them the authority to regulate the Internet and insure Net Neutrality regardless, and as a last resort, the Internet should be nationalized.

The time for selling out the American Peoples' best interests must come to an end.

Thanks for the thread, North Carolina.

[pscot]

4. Keep this thread alive

What are the alernatives to google?

[NorthCarolina]

5. I have been using Ask.com

for the time being.

[slay]

6. Here's UC Berkley's page for recommended search engines:

Of course Google is #1 oh well..

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/SearchEngines.html