Open Access

Most are missing the lasting implications and legacy of Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang's signature "Open" strategy, in all the media chatter about his demise and his successor. 

Yang set Yahoo on a new and different strategic trajectory philosophically and culturally -- i.e. that of the open source movement -- which is strategically Google-aligned and Microsoft-opposed.

Dana Blankenhorn of ZDNet, one of the leading bloggers covering open source, blasted Google "for being no different than Microsoft" in not operating in a true open source manner despite Google's constant representations that they are 'open' and honor 'open' principles.

While I respect and read Mr. Blankenhorn's views regularly, I seldom agree with him.

• In this instance, I must agree with him wholeheartedly as he is spotlighting an insight/theme I have long pounded on -- that Google is profoundly hypocritical, operates under massive double standards, and that its words do not match its deeds.

Bottom line:

Google you have another problem.

• Your previously loyal base of open source advocates is abandoning you because they realize Google is not principled at all -- Google is really only out for Google.

The cure is obvious Google -- walk your talk: be truly open, be truly transparent, be 'neutral', and be forthright.

Kudos to Phil Kerpen for an outstanding op-ed in the National Review Online on Net Neutrality where he shows that net neutrality is really the antithesis of Internet freedom and free speech that Net Neutrality proponents supposedly advocate for.

• Phil is Director of policy for Americans for Prosperity, and Chairman on the Internet Freedom Coalition.

Bottom line:

Proponents of net neutrality have perverted the concept of "Internet freedom" to mean a commons or government control -- only in an Orwellian nightmare of doublespeak could "Internet freedom" mean that.

The folks at the real Internet Freedom Coalition understand the true meaning of freedom and the reality that we are never but one generation away from losing it, if we are not forever vigilant in protecting real freedom from those who have designs to usurp it.

Welcome to genuine defenders of Internet freedom; may the Internet freedom pretenders beware.   

Google and its minions expect all of Google's competitors to be 'open' -- but not Google. 

• If openness and net neutrality are such important principles, why doesn't Google abide by them?
• And why don't Google's net neutrality allies insist that their leader, Google, lead by example, and not tarnish them with an obvious double standard? 

Consider the following troubling and mounting evidence that Google itself is becoming the anti-competitive threat that they claim all their big competitors are.

Google's G1-phone (Android): Per CNET's review of the G1-phone, "There's no option to change the search box to use search from Microsoft or Yahoo." How is that open or neutral? Especially given Google's unquestioned dominance of search?

Where's the free speech outrage when Google, the Internet's Ultimate gatekeeper, blocks free speech on the Internet in clear violation of the FCC's net neutrality principles?

• Many bloggers "received a notice from Google last week saying that their sites had been identified as potential “spam” blogs. “You will not be able to publish posts to your blog until we review your site and confirm that it is not a spam blog,” the Google e-mail read" per the New York Times Bits blog by Miguel Helft.      

Google's well-known dominant share of the search market makes Google the Internet's primary gatekeeper and self-appointed organizer of the world's information. As I have written repeatedly, Google has more unaccountable power over the world's information than any entity in the world, see here, and here.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin has booked a flight as a space tourist on Russia's Soyuz space shot according to the New York Times today.

• The story behind the story is that Google is finding the earth market too limiting and is planning to expand its mission from organizing all the world's information, to organizing all the universe's information.
• New Googlers in order to fit in with the "think big" Google culture have recently begun scoffing at the puny size of Earth's wireless market and are itching to conquer new more challenging frontiers in space where an android could be more useful.   
• One Googler was overheard saying that Jupiter is the next big market on Google's radar screen.

Previously, it was widely reported that Google is working on an inter-gallactic Internet.

I wanted to follow up and build upon my post of last week: "The logic of Internet Pricing Diversity and the Fantasy of free limitless bandwidth."

•  I keep hearing this backward-looking refrain from net neutrality proponents that because some people characterize dial-up and early broadband bandwidth as unlimited or as an all-you-can-eat usage model -- that that model should never evolve or change.
  • Balderdash! This is some people's wishes being presented as analysis.

I believe U.S. Internet access consumers have come to understand at least two truths: 

Given that Google CEO Eric Schmidt is delivering a major speech at the Economic Club of Washington Monday June 9th lunch, given that Google's business model is all about delivering "relevancy" to users, and given that Google's public policy mantra is "openness," I have assembled some suggested Washington-relevant questions for reporters and others to ask Dr. Schmidt at and after this open forum.

• The subjects of the questions are: antitrust, privacy, consumer protection, good government, transparency, openness, tax, net neutrality, and broadband Universal Service. 

Antitrust: 

I had to chuckle when I saw the headline: "Google CEO: Get Ready for Cellphone Ads" on the US News and World Report Blog.

• Google can't help but salivate over how valuable "targeted" ads could be on the most personal of devices -- the cell phone.

While Google's standard line is that Google is all about the "user" -- stories like this shed light on the truth -- it's really all about Google.

Google's self-centered, megalomaniacal mission to organize the world's information to be accessible and useful to Google -- blind Google to the very different privacy reality of the cellphone world:

Please read the brief and to the point editorial in the Las Vegas Review Journal on Net neutrality. They understand its a solution in search of a problem.