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NEWS > TECHNOLOGY > DOWNLOADING AT ALL TIME HIGH AS CONSUMERS FEAR INTERNET COLLAPSE
DOWNLOADING AT ALL TIME HIGH AS CONSUMERS FEAR INTERNET COLLAPSE
October 19 2009
New York, NY – When Tim Berners-Lee made his first baby steps towards inventing the World Wide Web it’s likely he had an idea of the potential. That now seemingly simple step of combining hypertext, domains, and TCP which essentially created the 
Web is one of the great stories of discovery on par with the discovery of penicillin or the creation of the sandwich. With hundreds of millions of users now dependent on the web and the internet as a whole, Berners-Lee’s invention has radically changed the world, and that may in fact be its undoing.
Since the mainstream adoption of the web in the mid 1990’s, the growth of the medium has been unlike any other in the history of the world. The biggest and fastest form of communication that has ever been invented has become the go to source for everything from simple communication, to research, to data sharing, to entertainment. As more users get on board though, and as publishers begin providing more demanding content, the strain on the system is beginning to show and that concerns experts with many feeling that the internet may soon run out of bandwidth. That fear has prompted millions to download and research at an increased pace as fears of being cut off start to become rampant.
“In the short term computers could be disrupted and will go offline for several minutes at a time. After 2012, however, PCs and laptops are likely to operate at a much reduced speed, rendering the internet an unreliable toy,’ said Internet Expert Ted Ritter, an analyst for Nemertes. “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”
Video games, streaming high definition video and increased demand from now nascent internet countries such as China and India are expected to increase the burden on the aging supercomputers and cabling that the network relies on to function. As more and more people rush to download their favourite videos, the short term effects could result in complete collapse.
“The demand is huge now. For example, YouTube generates more traffic in a month than the entire internet did in 2000. The internet is like any utility and will collapse under serious strain which is part of the reason that companies like Google have been cracking down on streaming sites. Videos of laughing aren’t worth crashing the entire network,” said Scrape TV Technology analyst Ken Kevins. “As more and more people realize that this is going to be a problem the rush on the network is going to increase dramatically. People will begin downloading music and movies, porn sites will be overwhelmed, and emails from Moms desperate to share pictures of cute kittens before the web crashes and that could compromise the system before anyone is ready.”
Governments from the United States and the European Union have begun to lead the charge in upgrading the network before the system crashes entirely, leaving millions without access to videos of people being hit in the genitals in high definition. 
“As more and more people get on the web the demand for genital hits is only going to increase. There’s little doubt that companies and countries are going to have to be proactive in coming up with a solution before it reaches crisis stage but equally they are going to have to make sure to be cautious in how they engage the public,” continued Kevins. “People have a tendency to panic and there’s no doubt that people are going to want access to this material once the internet goes dark. If they realize that they won’t be able to access it in real time on the web the only choice is going to be downloading and that could cripple the network before its time.”
Internet experts are urging people not to panic but studies show downloading is at an all time high, indicating that their efforts may be falling on deaf ears.
Martin Philton, Technology Correspondent
NEWS > TECHNOLOGY > DOWNLOADING AT ALL TIME HIGH AS CONSUMERS FEAR INTERNET COLLAPSE
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