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meadowlark5

(2,795 posts)
Sun Apr 13, 2014, 07:59 PM Apr 2014

Has net neutrality already hit the internet?

Seems that when I search for something, I get pages and pages repeating the same websites I've already looked at. And most are well known stores.

I remember doing searches and finding things from retailers I'd never heard of before. I used to find great deals. Now it seems I keep getting only a small selection of retailers and most are big name retailers and not a deal to be had

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Erich Bloodaxe BSN

(14,733 posts)
1. You mean a loss of net neutrality?
Sun Apr 13, 2014, 08:12 PM
Apr 2014

Net neutrality is not about what sites search engines serve up, but rather about site owners not having to pay extra fees to avoid having ISPs throttle back on delivering their content if they don't cough up the 'protection' the ISPs demand.

We have (or had) neutrality already, in the sense that data packets were not sorted by the 'tier of service' people were paying for. Each packet simply took the fastest route it could find to get from website A to your machine. With a loss of net neutrality, the ISP would be free to send packets along longer, slower routes if they came from sites that hadn't paid for 'premium routing', while preferentially treating those that came from sites that did cough up that extortion money to the 'shortest hops'.

So you might be paying through the nose for extra download bandwidth to handle your Netflix habit, but find yourself still getting crappy service unless Netflix decided to pay up as well. Some ISPs were already doing this sort of thing under the table with packets they had identified as torrents without admitting it, iirc.

edgineered

(2,101 posts)
2. It once was easier to search and receive results by being creative
Sun Apr 13, 2014, 08:19 PM
Apr 2014

in your search terms, using operands and symbols, or simply enclosing a string in quotation marks. The ways in which search engines determine what results you're going to get has made even this method shoddy at best. Good luck, we here at the Jone's Plantation know who our masters are.

 

arcane1

(38,613 posts)
4. I can't recall the name of it, but there's a search engine that skips past the first million results
Sun Apr 13, 2014, 08:39 PM
Apr 2014

Or maybe it was the first ten thousand results. Anyway, it enables you to omit all the crap

On edit: It's "Million Short":

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024100347

meadowlark5

(2,795 posts)
5. I suppose it's also possible the lesser known businesses couldn't compete
Sun Apr 13, 2014, 10:12 PM
Apr 2014

When the economy took a down turn and times got tough it's possible a lot have folded up not being able to compete with the big competition.

That could be part of it.

Good thing most of our home remodels are done, because it seems like my choices have dwindled substantially when trying to find the best prices online.

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