Google Shifts Out of Neutral
Google’s recent announcement of a ‘net neutrality’ agreement with Verizon is bothersome at best. Having one of the largest content providers making an agreement with one of the largest data pipes is scary. The wording of the agreement is meant to be as kind as possible, but it still gives you a bad feeling. I expect most of the other content providers are in a really bad place right now, probably scrambling to make similar agreements with other channels.
I am concerned with long-term affects on other web sites. A large part of my income for several years has been involved with writing applications that expect wide access to the Internet. If for some reason the company involved didn’t get along with Google, what happens? Do users find their site? Do pages just timeout, esp when accessing some neato graphic or Flash/Flex page or download?
If things get bad enough does Google develop a ‘preferred’ developer/company list that limits who gets quality of service over the line? How does a small company/developer compete to get on that list?
