Expect a Slower Net in 2008

EXPECT A SLOWER NET IN 2008
[SOURCE: Economist.com 12/23/07]
[Commentary] The Economist predicts that 1) 2008 will be the year that "we stop taking access to the Internet for granted." With more and more Internet users (including Internet-enabled devices) requiring more and more broadband, Internet traffic is bound to slow. "While major Internet service providers like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast all plan to upgrade their backbones, it will be a year or two before improvements begin to show. By then, Internet television will be in full bloom, spammers will have multiplied ten-fold, WiFi will be embedded in every moving object, and users will be screaming for yet more capacity. In the meantime, accept that surfing the web is going to be more like travelling the highways at holiday time. You'll get there, eventually, but the going won't be great." 2) Over the past couple of months, techdom has been abuzz with rumors about Google getting into the mobile phone business—with a G-Phone to trump Apple’s iPhone. That’s highly unlikely. Google’s core business is organizing knowledge and giving users access to it. Google makes its money—and lots of it—from matching advertisers to consumers who use its search engine to look up things, not from tinkering with slim-margin ventures like wireless networks. But despite owning the world’s largest knowledge base—with over 60% of the online search market—Google is at the mercy of others who control the on-ramps to the Internet. That rankles. Google's main objective may be to win 60% of the mobile search market.
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