In the aftermath of last week’s Samsung/Apple legal debacle over patents (you can bet I’ll have something to say about that, soon), I’ve been thinking about another topic that pops up here, every now and again. Hello, AT&T? This is Net Neutrality calling, and we want our definition back.
Thank you, AT&T, for saving us from the spectre of huge data costs when we go over the limit on our SmartPhone plans, and for instituting a business change that both makes sense and will be fair to everyone.
OK, strike most of that. AT&T has a new idea for wireless data pricing that, while absolutely qualifying both as business change and a business change plan that makes sense in its way, isn’t really going to benefit anyone except AT&T, and other really large companies.
Here we go again.
Despite not being an attorney, I have a better-than-most understanding of the United States Constitution. And The US Health Care Reform Act Violates that Constitution. But it’s being rolled out, anyway. It’s like Business Change. You change the way you do things and then you figure out how to make your changes stick. God Bless America.
The best and worst thing about the way our government and legal system work in the United States is that nobody is in a position to make rules without them being challenged. Short of a Constitutional Amendment specifically outlining a power, nothing’s written in stone.
Drowning in information? Feel like Google’s search results are too hard to wade through? And never mind the fire hose that is Twitter. Or Facebook.
Maybe it’s time for filtered search.
Actually, this isn’t a new idea; it’s just one that we mostly ignore. Your browser has some sort of “safe searching” mechanism built into it, but most people don’t give it a thought. And there’s no good reason to; if you ask what is being filtered by your browser you’re not going to get a real answer.
So now that Verizon and Google have proven themselves to be liars, the FCC is out of the Internet regulation business, and you still have to plan for business change, what should your next move be?
None. It doesn’t matter. Move on.
OK, so it isn’t as simple as that, but it’s close. Last week, when I told you about the Google / Verizon Collusion on Net Neutrality Pact, the most important point I made was this: Verizon and Google, working from a place that the rest of us can only dream about, are essentially making law. Oh sure, the FCC will eventually get around to writing the “official” version of how things work, but by attacking the issue preemptively, Google and Verizon have set up a showdown designed to ensure that the ultimate outcome is in their favor.
I’ve mentioned the idea of Net Neutrality a few times. It’s a simple, yet nuanced idea, and basically means that companies providing Internet access shouldn’t have any say in what traffic is important.
And that ship, as they say, has now sailed.
Yesterday, Google and Verizon announced an agreement under which Verizon won’t control what Internet traffic gets priority over other traffic . . . “unless it’s in the consumer’s best interest”.
Once upon a time, I spent a few years working for Verizon. It was an amazing and eye-opening professional experience for me, and although I ultimately came back to the world of small business development I learned quite a bit during my time working for one of the world’s largest companies.
Sounds like fait accompli, does it not? Google enacts one form of business change or another pretty much every day, and every one of their changes puts someone else out of business. Yesterday, they outdid themselves.
Google’s business change (and business changing) idea o’ the day was the introduction of a feature that lets Google Toolbar users comment on web pages they visit. Interesting? Stupid? A little of both? I say “genius”.
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