The internet is going to be a lot less free in the future
Posted: March 7th, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: Technology | Tags: culture, internet | No Comments »Note: this is a public draft. I’ll be rewriting and editing this post as time permits.
I really believe the internet is going to be a lot less free in the future. Right now, it’s not free, it may seem it, but it’s not. You pay for the content and services online through your privacy and by putting up with bad and good advertising.
As we get more and more use to the online space we’re going to start paying for stuff, because the good stuff, is going to start to cost real cash. The Wall Street Journal is one example. They have some of their content available for free, but a lot of it you have to pay for. The New York Times is not far behind. Online services are going to start costing money too, it’s only a matter of time. Many people pay $2/month for the professional version of Flickr (which is a fantastic deal). I’d wager that Facebook is going to cost money one of these days too. I can’t imagine they’ll be profitable with advertising alone.
This isn’t a bad thing, in fact, I think it’s a good thing. The quality of these services are becoming really good, and in time they’ll become great. They’ll enrich our lives and we won’t mind paying for them. In fact, it’s already happening. Just think about how often you run your credit card through a website of some kind (amazon.com counts).