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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2009
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4

YouTube Could Take Down Your Internet

Surging demand for video may cause Web 'brownouts': experts

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(Newser) – Watching those Susan Boyle and laughing baby clips on YouTube may soon come with a price: slower, shaky Internet connections, the Telegraph reports. Experts warn of a “brownout,” caused by outdated web systems unable to keep pace with surging online use of video sites, that will paralyze computers, threaten the economy, and leave the Internet an “unreliable toy.”

YouTube’s monthly bandwidth now equals the amount consumed across the entire Internet for all of 2000. “Today people know how home computers slow down when the kids get back from school and start playing games, but by 2012 that traffic jam could last all day long,” said one expert. Still, a plan to charge websites for faster service remains controversial.

Computers will freeze and drop offline with increasing regularity as the web's outdated infrastructure struggles to cope with the surging popularity of bandwidth-hungry video sites.
Computers will freeze and drop offline with increasing regularity as the web's outdated infrastructure struggles to cope with the surging popularity of bandwidth-hungry video sites.   (Shutter Stock)
Internet users will endure slower and less reliable connections from next year as websites such as YouTube cause online traffic to double.
Internet users will endure slower and less reliable connections from next year as websites such as YouTube cause online traffic to double.   (Shutter Stock)
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TerrifiedCitizen
Apr 26, 09 4:15 PM CDT
Well, it's become clear that promises from the governments to improve and grow the pipeline for information and communication were simply to appease the masses and win points. They increasingly look at the web as a two edged sword; they can disseminate effective propaganda quickly, but arguments contrary to official controlled news statements bounce back almost as quickly. Illuminating exposes replete with evidentiary photos are becoming more alarming to government officials involved in corruption and other acts of duplicity. It's becoming more and more difficult to keep the sheep-like voters they have traditionally relied on in the dark. So given this environment of openness and speed, and the loss of easier to control paper-news products and location specific physical mail, the governments have been dragging their feet when it comes to expanding this much harder to control medium. The reasons given run the gamut from priorities to the old faithful; "we're out of money"... however the costs associated with meeting the necessary expansion of the web is only an inth (sic) of any given oil war; a drop in the bucket for a country which owes what we do. This comment is of course much plainer than you'll read from any "professional" source, but regardless, it's the truth. Reply
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scottaco
Apr 26, 09 5:28 PM CDT
Once again, the companies that are charging us these jacked up prices, supposedly due to rebuilding the infrastructure, are claiming they can't keep up. The CEO's and major stockholders are sitting pretty while they gear up to convince the government that they need to raise prices again (considerably more this time I'm sure) or "the whole thing will collapse." WTF?! The routine has already gotten stale. Reply
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drlarrymitchell
Apr 26, 09 11:58 PM CDT
The internet is not a big truck. The internet is a series of tubes. Reply
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kokuaguy
May 22, 09 12:03 AM CDT
But it does seem somehow "un-American" that one person can sit at the computer all day using huge amounts of bandwith and still pays no more than the person who uses the internet a couple of hours a day sending email and chatting. Reply
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