Net Neutrality? How much control should ISP's have?

There is a debate raging now regarding whether Internet Service Providers (ISP) should be able to control and adjust the speed of data coming from certain sites. The pro-net neutrality group primarily consists of internet users who want to be able to view all websites at an equal speed. They feel there should be no discrimination based on the website. Those opposed to net neutrality primarily consist of the large ISPs who are constantly battling with the increased demand for data. The increase in demand stems from our increased technological "needs" such as updating our facebook pages, searching for restaurants, playing music through Pandora, using network based video games, or watching videos on YouTube. No longer are we just using bandwidth from our laptops, but now we have our new high powered mobile devices aka smartphones which are with us 24/7.

The main fear is that as ISP's become the floodgates controlling which websites have faster data transfers, internet users can be swayed and perceive certain websites to be superior to others. This puts many small internet based businesses in jeopardy of being out-maneuvered by their stronger competitors who can easily pay for the faster data speed. Controlling the data transfer can enable the ISP's to make certain websites unusable.

By making websites pay for the speed of data transfers, the ISP's will be able to make a lot of money. The question is whether this control is beneficial for the everyday internet user.

A seperate article also discusses how Democrat Henry Waxman just had his proposal for net neutrality fall short of the required votes in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Browser Wars Again!

I just came across this WSJ news article on companies trying to gain share in the web browser market.
We discussed in our class last week about how mobile users worldwide will surpass desktop users and most of the people will access internet via mobile devices. One of the implications we discussed about this trend was the prominence and growth of Apps and a decline in the use of web browsers. This also came up when we were discussing Web is Dead. Apps are, no doubt, a great way to enhance not only the user experience but also the marketing capabilities of companies.

So, why do companies like Microsoft, Google or Apple, who are aggressively pursuing the mobile internet market and trying to create their own App markets, worry about their web browsers? Microsoft and other companies probably realize that the next big gadget to rule the market is going to be tablet PCs. Apple's IPad has already given a glimpse of endless possibilities and opportunities that tablet PCs will create for internet users and businesses. Apps will be a dominant way to access certain services on web, but people will still use Web Browsers on tablet PCs to access information on internet. Web Browsers will be able to tell the same information (well, almost!) about the users that the apps will tell. So, is IE9 only for better graphics? Or is Microsoft developing IE9 (or maybe more versions?) of web browsers specifically for tablet PCs that will run on Windows OS. The IE9 screenshot in the WSJ article seems to be something we have seen only on IPads.

Also, Microsoft and Google compete against each other in the Search Engine market too. Their growth and decline in the market share for web browsers may impact their share in the search engine. It will be interesting to watch if Microsoft can re-gain the market share in the web browser market and help that feed its Bing growth or will Google or Apple respond with something new.