For instance, do you need to look up some information for a school term paper? Just use a search engine such as Google. Do you want to buy a Wii game and have it shipped to your house? You can easily find a Wii game online and possibly even free shipping to your house. Maybe you want a unique necklace made by an artist. Google in the type of jewelry you are looking for and click away on links. All of this simplicity may end by the year 2012.
By 2012, you will not even stumble across that beloved piece of unique jewelry from the small website. Right at this moment, large Internet companies are in discussion of changing the way we all use the Internet.

“I Power” activists use the analogy, “Think of how your TV works.” You can choose the basic package or you can pay more and get Showtime and/or other movie channels.

This is exactly how the future Internet would work. For a certain price you will get the large corporations such as Google, eBay, etc. websites. Although if you want to have access to smaller websites that will cost you more. The mainstream people will only pay for the large and popular companies which will sadly stop small websites. Small businesses and people trying to earn a little extra income will fail. In this economy, people need this extra money for daily living needs.

We cannot let the “bully corporations” take over the small websites. Guess what else the “bully corporations” want? Higher speed. Higher speed means you will find the links to their sites first. As computer users we want freedom of choice and not broadband companies making the choice for us.

Computer users need to write, phone or e-mail your congressmen to pass a bill to keep network neutrality. (Skip signing an e-mail chain letter.) Keep your Internet rights for better technology tomorrow.

If you take a few moments to think about internet technology, you will realize that technological advances have come a very long way. It is amazing. Where has technology taken us? Many places.

The fact that technological advances have tripled within the last 40 years compared to the 40 years before is astounding. While some of these advances may have made distractions at work (I’m guilty) a little more prevalent, it has also opened up the workplace to exciting new ways to conduct business and think about new ways to reach the consumer.

Of course, one of the major advances in the workplace was the everyday usage of the Internet. Although the Internet has been around for decades, it only became a workplace necessity in the 1990s. This is when companies realized that they could much more quickly-and cheaply-reach their target audience than through other traditional media sources.

Even more amazing, technology continues to move outside the traditional office or home environment into more powerful and full-featured mobile computing devices. BlackBerries, iPhones and Windows Mobile devices are showing a trend toward bringing the experiences we are familiar with on a desktop computer and putting them in the palm of our hands. With better devices and technology, other things have to keep up as well. The biggest breakthrough will be in increasing the speed of mobile access to the Internet. In the future, the all-encompassing network of wireless broadband Internet access will rival what we experience today in our wired offices and homes, which will allow users for a more sophisticated browsing experience.

I think in the next 5 years or so, the internet will be looked at as commonplace. Everyone will be connected to everyone else at all times. Perhaps if I take a little bit to think about the future, I  can probably guess that watching TV on the internet will be almost as common enough to not require a local cable service. Most of the shows I watch are broadcast online, sometimes better looking than watching it on cable television and I think more and more people will realize this and it’ll be quite popular. That would mean better innovations and better services on Cable companies’ parts.

It is a never-ending story of internet and the technology behind it, and I am anxious to see the best of it. However, I am an optimist. There are those that are not so anxious and for good reason. We all know that with better technology going into internet and other things, that problems arise and individuals find loopholes, and hackers have that better technology to do “bigger and better things.” There is a not-so-pretty  side of things unfortunately, but we will coupe, and time will tell.

To read a good book about this topic, I recommend  The Future of Internet and How to Stop It  by Jonathan Zittrain and it talks about a lot of interesting topics and ideas. Check it out at your local library or buy it online!

Wi-Fi is nothing new to us. When wireless internet first arrived to us, I thought how nice it would be for a massive Wi-Fi signal to allow anyone and everyone to access the internet for free. Although  such ubiquitous Wi-Fi is still so far away, we have managed to come quite close. I use a few devices that use 802.11 signals to communicate with the internet, such as my iPhone and I am constantly seeing wireless signals. If you bring a laptop along with you to IHOP or McDonalds, you will be amazed to find that they broadcast a signal. Who would have thought a few years back that they would provide internet access??

I am going to tell you about devices that not only make calls, but also save a few service fees in the process using your neighbor’s router or a hotspot.  The Sony Mylo COM-2, the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet and the Zipit Wireless Messenger 2 all let you save on cellular data service fees while leaving your laptop computer in its case. 

Like the first-generation Mylo, the COM-2 ($299) lets users surf the Web, send instant messages, and play MP3 music files. With an 800-by-480-pixel touch screen, it looks and feels a lot like Sony’s PSP handheld gaming system, and is significantly better than the original model I played with a little back in 2006. The COM-2 doubles as a 1.3 megapixel camera, and the slide-out QWERTY keyboard is now backlit, allowing users to chat or surf in the dark. It supports the 802.11b and 802.11g wireless protocols and uses 1 gigabyte of internal memory, upgradeable to 8 gigabytes through a Memory Stick Duo/PRO Duo expansion slot. Check it out here.

Nokia’s N810 Internet Tablet is pricier at $479, but it is the first Wi-Fi handheld that I have seen that would make me think replacing my laptop. The N810 has a 400-megahertz processor with 128 megabytes of RAM and runs on a version of the Linux operating system. It includes 2 gigabytes of internal storage, which is expandable to 8 gigabytes or more through a miniSD port. With a 4.13-inch widescreen LCD and 800-by-480-pixel resolution, the N810 beautifully displays pictures and videos and improves on its predecessor, the Nokia N800, with a slide-out backlit QWERTY keyboard that is a bit cramped. The device also includes a built-in VGA camera for video conferencing, a miniSD slot to hold an MP3 music collection and customizable widgets for access to Google searches and streaming Internet radio. It also has a built-in global positioning receiver, but turn-by-turn directions through WayFinder cost $120 for a three-year contract. A former writer here at The Tech Brief did a hands-on review for us and really enjoyed it.

Those solely interested in texting their friends might want to look at the Zipit Wireless Messenger 2 ($149), which provides a great way to get text-message-addicted kids using Yahoo’s, AOL’s or Microsoft’s services off the main home computer. My parents would have loved to get this for me when I first discovered texting. The flip-up device, about the size of a thick wallet with a small screen and backlit QWERTY keyboard, allows users to connect to a Wi-Fi router or hot spot. Once users enter information about their accounts, they can message buddies who appear on the MyFriendz list and switch between chat windows if they’re overly popular. What really sets the device apart is that after users update their Zipit’s software through a download, they can sign up for a text-messaging plan to also send messages to cell-phone users. The plan was free until the program formally launched in February, and will now cost $4.99 a month for up to 1,500 incoming and 1,500 outgoing messages. The Zipit has miniSD card which lets it double as an MP3 player, and users can also go to Zipit’s Web site to set up a list of up to eight streaming Internet radio stations. You can see more details here.

The U.S. might not yet be one giant Wi-Fi hot spot, but enough wireless-friendly locations are popping up to at least make us think about owning a handheld Wi-Fi device. If you have a wireless router at home, these gadgets can further release you from the grip of your desk. I still think a colossal Wi-Fi broadcast is in the future. What do you think?

Internet use keeps climbing, with video being the big driver in recent years. Google’s YouTube, which started up in 2005, already accounts for about 10 percent of Internet traffic. What does that mean for internet service providers?

Internet service providers have been serving us an “all-you-can-eat” internet service for years. That has worked great, because they have had more bandwidth than they knew what to do with and we have enjoyed the simplicity of a flat price and our pick of each of the packages they provide us. However, every year, our demands grow, some of us really taking advantages of our unlimited freedom. However, just like most things, there comes a time when something depletes. But can the internet really run out?

If you have not noticed, many service providers are starting to limit internet usage; controlling the traffic. In addition to that, some providers are limiting downloads for individuals per month. Two of the culprits are Time Warner and Comcast who are placing bandwidth caps and limiting file sharing practices for their subscribers. Rob Malan states, “One greedy person on that network knocks the whole neighborhood offline.” That makes since, but should someone suffer because of one person? If we look at similar situations, the answer is, unfortunately, yes.

Cable companies have started implementing new ideas for increasing capacity, but it is only a matter of time before us consumers take advantage of the increase. We get more freeway, we use more freeway, right? Cable companies can devote additional channels to data, or they can “split the node” to reduce the number of households on each cable. A new modem technology called Docsis 3.0 that is starting to roll out this year can increase download capacity on a cable to 160 mbps. However, this is costly and time consuming, costing billions to upgrade, and at least 3 years to do so.

Phone companies have great advantages because unlike cable companies, which share usage amongst its subscribers, phone companies operate digital subscriber lines that are not shared. Not to mention, phone companies can upgrade for little cost and time.

It is unfortunate that cable and phone companies have sold more bandwidth they can provide for everyone, but for us “greedy” consumers, it is one way we are currently able to afford internet. By oversubscribing, phone and cable companies are able to provide a network and affordable internet for us all. Internet is something that practically everyone uses, and we take advantage of the freedom that we have, but what will happen in the future. Internet usage is not decreasing; it is increasing at a phenomenal rate.

So, can the internet really run out? NO, but be prepared for some solutions to keep that from happening. Internet usage will keep increasing, service providers will keep growing to compensate, and we will always be connected.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a3l7UWY5gA[/youtube]

Claiming to be the largest online people search with more than 200 million people profiles from across the Web, including social networks and other online communities, I thought I would test out their claim. Needless to say, they scored high on the test.

Like I sometimes do on Google, I started simple, and I searched my name. The page was instantly filled with pictures of myself, and other various web pages, blogs, and social networks I have been in or wrote for. I searched my boss, I searched my friends, and I searched my neighbors. Trying to see whom it would not find…It found everyone. You would be thunderstruck at the people you will find. Those that I thought had nothing to do with the internet were on there.

Wink.com searches the public profiles on MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, LinkedIn, Live Spaces, and other sources. They are adding more and more networks all the time and are developing new technology to find even more people in a variety of cool ways. Wink People Search lets you find people by name, location, school, work, and interest anywhere on the web.

If you ask me, I find it kind of creepy. Of course I realized, being an active internet user, I will have things littered all over the internet about me, but it just makes me feel strange to think that companies out there specialize in bringing people altogether in services like this one, and PeopleFinder, and the others that are out there. I digress.

If you want, you can ask to be found:

“You can also use Wink to enable you to be found on the Wink search engine and other traditional search engines. By creating a profile on Wink, you can manage your web presence. Wink allows you to claim and add various places where you are online, and provides you an interface to manage all of them in one place. This gives you the power to determine what people know about you and where you are on the web.”

So there you have it folks – Wink.com, the largest online people search that is improving constantly. I must say, it has taken a bit of time out of my day doing all the searches. Not only is it fun searching for people you know, but it is helpful and free.