Google and Money!
Charles Petersen
The Internet, as originally conceived, was supposed to be noncommercial, and therefore treated all traffic in a “neutral” way, giving the same priority to every piece of data that passed through the network. As the Internet has developed, this principle of neutrality, though never codified in law, has largely been retained: whether Internet content comes from a long-established video rental company like Blockbuster or from a relatively recent start-up like Netflix, the pages, images, and videos that are sent through the network must all be passed along at equal speed. For years Google was a staunch supporter of net neutrality, even as net neutrality’s demands began to run counter to its interests. But on August 9, Google together with Verizon announced a “compromise” …
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