The Internet Just Got Fucking Worse.

I knew I should have waited before polling, the mere thought of a horse mince Giga-Burger is making me hungry.

Quast said:

All I can say is that I haven't seen an advertisement on the internet in probably 7 or 8 years or more, and it's fucking great.

How much Linux are you running?

myk said:

Once you've run your adware removal program, make your pick:

1) Some ads
2) Pay to use Google
3) Pay more taxes

Whoa whoa whoa hold it there, vaquero. The "who pays for the internet" question is kinda old, but taxes and ads don't really enter anywhere into it. The way I understand it, people pay some fees directly to their ISPs (which AFAIK are not subsidized), which in turn buy bandwidth from larger ISPs etc. up to the level of nation-wide backbones, which then connect to larger international hubs mostly based on "gentlemen agreements" or for the sake of "mutual interconnectivity benefits".

Now that this is out of the way, there's the question "who pays for Google" or any other website and service....well, in that -and in that case only-, since we're talking about 100% private initiatives in 99% of cases, ads are justified.

But then again, in the very easly days of the www, at the times of Yahoo, Altavista etc., ads were quite rare, almost an experimental feature, and search engines were more of a "showing off" technology for research centres, operated almost as an academic/research experiment (anybody remember digital.altavista.com?). The "trend" to turn search engines into the center of a money-minting machine came later, in the late 90s, but it was perfectly feasible to have functional search engine even without ads/sponsorhip.

waiting for internet mark 2

The Internet becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. Every website will become an Advertisement and it will take over factories and build Adverminators that will go around everywhere forcing you to buy stuff you don't want, and if you refuse, they will take you to Advertisement Camps where you will be brainwashed to buy everything they advertise, and/or become an organic Adverminator.

You know the Advertisment Day is inevitable. Ads multiply every day. Tried to run, tried to hide! Brainwashed to the other side, brainwashed to the other side...

Excepting youtube ads, the only ads that suck are the ones on file sharing websites that say "click to download" on them. That shit's just mean.

If you think the internet is bad now, wait tell the Trans-Pacific Partnership passes. Bringing all the provisions of SOPA with it.

Maes said:
The "who pays for the internet" question is kinda old, but taxes and ads don't really enter anywhere into it.

Not who pays it, who can pay it.

Ads are everywhere on the net and are responsible for the finances of tons of sites full of content that you don't need to pay for, such as the one we are posting on. I remember there used to be (crappy) ad-financed dial-up services but that wasn't my point.

As for taxes, communications is infrastructure, and that can be owned by the State, directly or through equity control. Public funding can also be used to lower or offset prices through subsidies, or money can be invested to ensure access to the whole population. What I was saying is that if he doesn't want ads to exist and doesn't want to pay directly, only public funding could cover the costs. Whether this is really happening anywhere is beside the point.

Just to mention three examples where regional or national administrations can cheapen or expand access, the North Korean net is payment-free, although restricted to itself, Venezuela offers cheap connectivity through its State-owned provider, and the City of Wilson in North Carolina offers reliable connectivity for a good price.

esselfortium said:

You might have malware.

You mean public8media.com?