Splinternet, Or How We Broke the Good Old Web
StormDriver writes "I don't want to be that scruffy guy with 'The end is nigh' sign and some really bad dental problems, but most industry analysts already noticed that global Internet is coming apart, changing into a cluster of smaller and more closed webs. They have even created a catchy name for this Web 3.0 – the Splinternet.
It's a self-promotion piece that tries to pull disparate internet issues together and fails.
Major thrust of article is that "oh noes, the facebook and twitter content of the web is often hidden behind login requirements and privacy settings".
You know what, I don't care if ALL the social networking via the internet is normally inaccessible and un-indexable and unreachable by search engine. Part of the good thing about the internet is that sites, such as my bank's, can protect data from public visibility. That's not splintering. The internet is only splintered if I can't get to my bank's web server when traveling around the globe. So far, I haven't noticed that problem, even from the poorest third world countries the internet cafes with ten year old Hitachi towers pulled from some first world dumpster running pirated windows XP (with latest updates, mind you) work just fine. That's f'ing amazing, I can pay my electric bill and win eBay auction from Laos or Cambodia and have the stuff arriving home at the same time I do.
Then he raises the specter of content filtering, *might* happen and might fracture internet. Well, the web ain't broken yet.
"It's an ad!"
Longer version: the author describes a problem and then -- wonder of wonders! -- is selling something.
Whoosh on you, your complaints have nothing to do with "splintering of internet", your packets are getting to and from Oracle.com just fine and to and from the manufacturer just fine. If sites policies and package shipping procedures cause you problems, that's splintering and alienation of their customer base, bad and shame on them, but the internet is doing its job.