Cable Companies Say Google Threatens Net Neutrality and Not Them
turbocharged
1:46 am on Jul 28, 2014 (gmt 0)
The real threat to online freedom is from Internet giants like Google and Netflix, according to major cable companies.
Those sites could block access to popular content and extort tolls out of Internet service providers, the cable companies warn.
The argument is the backward version of the usual fight over net neutrality.
The National Cable and Telecommunications Association, which represents all the major cable companies, wrote that "a relatively concentrated group of large [Web companies]—such as Google, Netflix, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook—have enormous and growing power over consumers' ability to access the content of their choice on the Internet."
The group argued that Google, which handles about 68 percent of all Internet searches, has far more control over access to other sites than any individual broadband provider does.
Sorry to digress but again I see that 68% number. If only that were true. Look up, way up and that's where the market share for them is headed regarding searches. Mobile is the understated and I guess that's good for Google that ignorance is so widespread in the media.
I disagree that Google would ever "extort tolls" or do anything close to causing negative PR. It's a PR game and that's why the concerns are rather pathetic. If there becomes a threat, it will only because they go into it with the other big guys so that they all can point fingers and say "but they are doing it too!". That Association is obviously getting a stiff dose of reality. I've seen the reality but on the super small scale as a webmaster.
turbocharged
3:46 am on Jul 28, 2014 (gmt 0)
Sorry to digress but again I see that 68% number.
Myself included. ComScore marketshare numbers are often the basis for Google marketshare determinations. ComScore states:
*“Explicit Core Search” excludes contextually driven searches that do not reflect specific user intent to interact with the search results.
What I feel is more accurate is the data that statistics services collect/analyze across a wide variety of global websites.
According to StatCounter, Google holds 90.12% of the entire search market globally when all platforms (mobile, desktop, etc.) are factored in.
