Ironically, the Internet faces one of its biggest problems because of its biggest success. There's now so much information available on the Net, and so many people trying to access it, that something, somewhere, has got to burst. Information overload presents two main problems:
1 Finding the information you want in a sea of dross.
2 Getting connected and managing to download the information once you've located it.
There have always been a number of information searching tools for the Internet user, but none has been particularly user friendly or powerful until recently. But the real advances have arrived in the shape of Web searching tools which allow information to be located simply by entering a key word or words, and the results of the search are displayed in hypertext format so you can go straight to the sites concerned at the click of a mouse. Netscape, the most popular of Web browsers, even has a Net Search button built-in, taking you straight to a page containing a number of such tools.
These Web searchers are only of any use if you can actually connect to them in the first place, and that's becoming more and more difficult as their popularity increases. The solution is for such sites to charge for their service. One, Infoseek has started to do this already, working on the assumption that busy Net users will gladly pay a small fee to enable a quick and efficient information search. The introduction of Web site entry fees could well be the only way forward if information is to be kept moving. In just two years (1993 and 1994), the amount of traffic using the World Wide Web has grown at the rate of almost 450,000 per cent. With CompuServe now offering Web access to its three million users, and other large on-line services set to follow suit (Delphi, Cix and the imminent Microsoft Network to name but three), the Web is on the verge of a tidal wave of new information seekers.
The second problem is much more difficult to tackle, and will only get worse as more people come on-line. The combination of modem speeds, which have just about reached their maximum potential already it would seem, and the popularity of the best Internet sites mean that information bottlenecks are inevitable.
The British have always been good at queuing, and maybe it's just as well, because on-line queues are definitely heading your way. Innovative new software such as the Internet Phone and C-You C-Me, which allow both voice and video to be carried over standard dial-up Internet routes, only add to the problems.
EUnet, one of Europe's biggest Internet service providers, has even taken the step of warning its customers of the dangers of using such bandwidth-intensive programs. Because these programs use the UDP protocol, which uses all the bandwidth all the time, rather than TCP which has much better flow control, there's a real danger of the Net grinding to a halt. EUnet takes this threat so seriously that Deri Jones, its managing director, has stated that the company will pull the plug on users found to be using UDP. If ISDN were more readily available, or at least more financially viable, there wouldn't be a problem, but the current infrastructure of the Internet just wasn't designed to deal with the technology of today.
Although the Internet is becoming an ever more viable marketing, retailing and general business tool, there will always be a large percentage of users who are only there to socialise and spend some well-earned leisure time. A possible result of this is that users who want serious information could find themselves drowned in trivia, while socialising Net users might have to fight through a tide of commerce before they can ride the waves. All this amounts to a likelihood that alternative on-line services will become established to provide what users want to the exclusion of what they don't. This sort of fragmentation may appear harmful to the Internet, a system built on a foundation of global connectivity and virtual community.
As an example, Compuserve (the world's biggest commercial on-line system) offers users structured access to the information they want, at a price that they're well aware of. The users can still venture onto the Internet proper if they wish. Of course, Internet users can't venture onto Compuserve unless they're members. This sort of closed club is becoming a more common sight along the verges of the information highway.
Microsoft will be joining the ranks soon with the release of Windows 95, which includes built-in access to the Microsoft Network, allowing potentially millions of new users onto the Internet. UKOnline is yet another such venture, providing yet another refuge for those people who want exactly the type of service offered.
If the emergence of these services helps to clear the Internet of traffic, perhaps they're to be encouraged. If, on the other hand, they lead to millions of intrepid infonauts wandering lost onto the Internet, they could well be accused of draining the Net of valuable resources while contributing nothing at all.
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