[ NNSquad ] Subject: Re: Previous story on DOJ/Telecom

[David Berry <ravenman@rocketmail.com>]

Lauren,

I've seen this behavior before, and my intuition lead me to believe
that it had to do with the referrer parameters of the HTTP protocol.
But in my case, it has been exceedingly helpful--if not shamefully
illegitimate.  Those familiar with Experts-Exchange may know that
it's a tech support site with professionals from all over the world
bidding and competing for points on solutions, which are assigned to
support incidents.  The topics have a very broad range, and the
system fully opens every "trouble ticket" to Google.  The bane of
their system, and my boon, is that when following the link directly
from Google, I am given access to support incidents in a fashion I'm
certain is meant to be restricted.  Naturally, this only helps me for
those which have been resolved, and are identical to my situation.
However, a surprisingly large number of problems I've found nowhere
else on the Internet have passed through these gates, and been
provided to Google for reference.  Naturally, if I visit the site
directly, without the use of Google, I am prevented from seeing the
material I desperately need from time to time.

In essence, it's a hack.  But more succinctly it's a webmaster with a
poor understanding of proper search-indexing techniques.  Either way,
I reap the benefits of it, so I have a vested interest in the status
quo; such as it is.  From a neutrality standpoint, I feel that I've
been robbing the system, so to speak.  Google didn't open a hole in
their network.  They opened the hole for Google... and I just happen
to be piggybacking in on it.  But I find it a veritable oasis in a
vast desert.  Where once there had been public aquifers known as
newsgroups, they have seemingly dried up in favor privatized wells.
While newsgroups aren't dead, the lure of profit from one's knowledge
seems to be drying them out.

I personally believe that information wants to be free, and more
importantly, people want information to be free.  However, as a
technician myself, I can understand the desire to be paid for
providing information that is useful for a particular purpose.  That
the virtue of the usefulness of the knowledge I have gained--and
perhaps even paid for--has a value, and so too the efforts of my
imparting of it.  Sites like Experts-Exchange sit in odd dichotomy,
trying to play on both sides of a fence: turning a profit from
segregating the educated and the uneducated, while freeing them to
provide context for search engines.  They hearken to days of elite and
secretive clubs, or gatherings of the powerful and informed.  They
charge the layman for admission to a congregation.  They demand
rituals and pledges to their cause.  And, as John Wycliffe before
them, Google has opened their knowledge to the masses.

This is neutrality, and this is laudable, and Google has provided it
without asking anything as demanding as the originator.  Long live the
sacrifice one makes for the many, and for the proxy to knowledge and
salvation that one becomes.

Humbly,

David Berry

  [ I agree -- this situation clearly is not Google's fault in any way.

    What bugs me about the whole issue from a neutrality standpoint is
    the uneven playing field that can be created for ordinary Internet
    users.  It's as if all the prices at Best Buy were different
    depending on whether you entered through the right-hand-side doors
    vs. the doors on the left.  I realize that this sort of thing goes
    on all over the Net in a wide variety of contexts, and that many
    people have figured out how to "game" the system in different ways.
    I'm not suggesting a "solution" or ban or anything like that.

    I'm just noting that as something of an armchair ethicist, I find
    the situation discomforting.

    OK, I'll admit I'm not in a good mood.  Over on my blog, I just
    blasted CBS -- right now *both* of their L.A. news stations, which
    promise between them to provide 24/7 traffic information, are
    running nothing but the Last Michael Jackson Show wall-to-wall.  
    I was stuck out on the freeway -- couldn't legally look at Google
    Maps while driving -- and ... well, it's a prime example of what
    media consolidation has accomplished ...  
    ( http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000593.html ).

    -- Lauren Weinstein
       NNSquad Moderator ]