It is human nature – we love getting stuff for free. We love getting free stuff so much that we either don’t see or don’t care about the strings that come attached with all this free stuff. At the center of this freeconomy of course is the ever growing Google with more free products under their belt than just about any other major corporation.
Yes we have had free stuff available to us for almost as long as we have been trading goods among ourselves. In most cases the old adage of it’s only as good as what you paid for it has been used to signify that free products usually meant crappy products. Then along comes Web 2.0 and the Google revolution of freenomics which generally raised the quality of the free products to almost good enough as the stuff you pay for.
The attitude being that we are willing to accept products that just get the job done but don’t come with anything to make the product really stand out other than it is free. It never fails these days that any web service that comes along has to be free in order to get any kind of traction at all. In turn though for those almost as good as products we are being required at some point to provide more and more of our personal information. Along with that – especially in the case of social networks like Facebook – we are for all intents and purposes signing away all our rights to any of our data that is either added to or created on these services.
Now according to a post by Mark Evans ISP provider Charter Communications is experimenting with what they are calling enhanced online experience which is short form for conducting deep packet inspection of all of your traffic that flows through their pipes. The principal behind this plan is to be able to provide advertisers with incredibly detailed customer usage patterns so that they can fine tune their ads even more.
In short the deeper companies like Charter can get into your every move on the web the more money they can make from selling that information to advertisers. While not mentioned as a part of this there is no denying that this type of snooping on your data traffic will also allow them to monitor your activities online so it isn’t any stretch of the imagination as to how much that information would be worth to groups like the RIAA or MPAA or even law enforcement at all levels.
Of course I can hear the moans of who cares there’s no privacy on the net anymore (bullshit – the only reason there isn’t is because we’ve been willing to sell it off for free stuff) and so what does it matter.
Well like Mark I know one way that Charter could sell this idea hook line and sinker – offer up free broadband access. After all we’ve pretty well given up everything regarding our privacy so far for free email and a bunch of other just as good applications so what does it matter if we give up everything so we can get to all that free stuff a little faster.
Steven – I detect some sarcasm in this post. In my case I would never sign up for this deal. Would I take a free computer if the OS desktop was covered with ads? Heck no. Alternatively, I would actually pay good money, even extra, for an ISP that would guarantee they would stay out of my business and not sell my info to advertisers. There's a whole new revenue stream ripe for the taking.
I could easily see this backfiring though. The sort of person who goes in for free internet service is likely really on a tight budget – a demographic who is probably not going to click on ads and by the products.
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Me … sarcastic?
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Excellent post. Even though Charter is mentioned, I can definitely see Comcast getting in on something like this as well. They have monopoly pretty much in my entire state.
Only part I disagree with is “almost good enough as the stuff you pay for.”
I guess it depends on where you come from as far as OS/Software choices.
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Me … sarcastic?
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Excellent post. Even though Charter is mentioned, I can definitely see Comcast getting in on something like this as well. They have monopoly pretty much in my entire state.
Only part I disagree with is “almost good enough as the stuff you pay for.”
I guess it depends on where you come from as far as OS/Software choices.
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> attitude being that we are willing to accept products that just get the job done but don’t come with anything to make the
> product really stand out other than it is free
“Getting the job done” is a pretty stand out feature.
A good deal of for-pay software is bloated with “people are paying for this, we'd better throw in the kitchen sink” thinking. And in reality I am finding a lot of free software to be just what I need; GMail is the best email client for my needs. Google Reader is the best feed reader for my needs. Google Search is pretty darned good, I don't see any for-pay alternatives.
Obviously we all have different needs and some people may find Outlook caters for their needs. But it doesn't make the “freeternatives” any less.
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The additional problem of freenomics being it takes away any initiative for independent developers to try and bring what they think will be a good solid alternative to “just good enough software”. What is the point of shareware anymore when the next thing you know there is s free version of the same idea that can be added into yet another tab in your browser.
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The additional problem of freenomics being it takes away any initiative for independent developers to try and bring what they think will be a good solid alternative to “just good enough software”. What is the point of shareware anymore when the next thing you know there is s free version of the same idea that can be added into yet another tab in your browser.
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