Who Will Win Control of the Web?

Barence writes "Control of the web is up for grabs. Each of the big three computing companies – Microsoft, Apple and Google – has its own radically different vision to promote, as does the world's biggest creative software company, Adobe. And HTML itself is changing, too. This article examines the case for each of the contenders in the war of the web and, with the help of industry experts, assesses which – if any – is most likely to emerge as victor."

Comments

Re:The Gov't

[Dthief]

Sorry for the shitty formatting, here is a more legible format Unfortunately the US government (at least in the US) has pulled ahead in terms of controlling the internet via seizure:

July: http://www.gamepolitics.com/2010/07/01/ice-seizes-website-domains-part-copyright-crackdown

Nov: http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/130763-homeland-security-dept-seizes-domain-names-

Dec: ?

And in the UK its the police:

Mid-November: http://libcom.org/news/police-force-shut-down-fitwatchorguk-16112010

Late-November: http://www.techeye.net/internet/uk-police-want-power-to-shut-down-websites

Me

[RAMMS EIN]

Who will win control of the Web? I will. In fact, I already have it, and have had it since some time in the 1990s. And if some entity somehow takes that control away from me, I or one of my many fellow producers of web content will create a new Web, and we will use that.

Easier to read article

[cheebie]

Or you could go read the 'print' version which is all on one page and not 75% advertisement.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/363175/who-will-win-the-battle-for-control-of-the-web/print

Re:How do we make sure?

[beakerMeep]

Actually, Slashdot posted it yesterday: http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/11/26/1450257/US-Government-Seizes-Torrent-Search-Engine-Domain
 
The same day as your link.

Slashdot may have political bias, but when it comes to tech, no party or ideology gets off the hook.

I'd sooner suspect your bias, for linking to TheHill, than Slashdot's.

Re: The question is biased

[openfrog]

You and I, silly people. Why are we deluding ourselves into believing only massive multinational companies can control the web,

You are right that the Web belongs to you and I. And it goes further. TFA asks the question backwards:

Control of this new evolution of the web is up for grabs. Each of the big three computing companies – Microsoft, Apple and Google – has its own radically different vision to promote.

This question is biased. The Web has not been created by corporate entities and is not "up for grabs". The web has evolved out of the cumulative connectedness of public networks through public standards, which development is still overseen by the WWW Consortium. Attempts to privatize parts of it (eg. AOL) have failed and new attempts must fail if we wish to see the Web further innovate.

Read Tim Berners-Lee latest article. It articulates the questions facing the evolution of the Web so much more clearly:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=long-live-the-web

Re:The Gov't

[zach_the_lizard]

You think those amendments really count anymore? I got stopped by a drunk driving checkpoint without any probable cause beyond "he was in a vehicle." Eminent domain lets them take whatever they want, especially in light of the latest ruling on it, for any purpose. Just compensation is whatever the government says it is.

Re:How do we make sure?

[girlintraining]

So . . . you want the government to manage it? :D

If you remember your history, originally they did. None of this non-sense was happening until private businesses moved in and demanded government protection for their profit margins.

Re:Answer

[Anonymous Coward]

If each of you here went over to 10 people's homes and set them up on something like Tor, and showed them how to protect their privacy and avoid malware and advertisement

Um, running Tor without having a good idea of what you're doing and what the risks are is a good way to RUIN your privacy. Repeat after me: Tor doesn't provide privacy, it provides anonymity.

You also have to understand how Tor works. It's not called "The Onion Router" for nothing, and for the most part, everyone and their dog can run a Tor node. Quite a few people do, too, and while you probably won't have much to fear from the intermediate nodes, the exit nodes WILL see your real traffic.

This necessarily means that you'll have to use encryption, and stay away from sites that don't support it or that leak e.g. session cookies. Think Firesheep was bad? Think again. And really, all the usual suspects do run exit nodes, too. 4chan trolls, spammers, criminals, and your favorite three-letter agency all do.

Installing Tor for people who don't understand it is a disaster. To do so to improve their privacy is absurd. So please, before you install Tor for someone, think long and hard about whether it'll actually benefit them.