Dear Comcast High-Speed Internet Customer:

As we transition to this new technique, we have amended our Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") and posted it on the Comcast.net Web site. For links to the amended AUP, as well as answers to Frequently Asked Questions and more information about this new technique or our network management efforts in general, please visit our Network Management Policy page at: www.comcast.net/networkmanagement.

Thank you again for choosing Comcast as your high-speed Internet provider.

September 1st, 2008

Posted by Larry Dignan

Updated: Google will launch a Web browser called Chrome that will take on Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and apparently Mozilla’s Firefox, which the search giant essentially funds.

In an odd leak, Google sent Google Blogoscoped a comic book outlining the technology in its Chrome browser. The leak was confirmed by Kara Swisher and the Wall Street Journal (see the full comic book via Swisher). Philipp Lenssen outlines the following technical details (Techmeme):

• Google’s browser will be open source;
• Chrome will include a JavaScript Virtual Machine built from scratch;
• Tabs will be moved around;
• The browser has an address bar with auto-completion.
• There’s a privacy feature like IE has;
• And Google aims to be proactive about fighting phishing and malware attacks.

Update: Google confirmed that Chrome will launch on Tuesday in a beta that will cover 100 countries. Google said on its blog:

All of us at Google spend much of our time working inside a browser. We search, chat, email and collaborate in a browser. And in our spare time, we shop, bank, read news and keep in touch with friends — all using a browser. Because we spend so much time online, we began seriously thinking about what kind of browser could exist if we started from scratch and built on the best elements out there. We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that’s what we set out to build.

On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn’t the browser that matters. It’s only a tool to run the important stuff — the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.

So what does all of this mean and why is Google aiming to target a crowded browser market?

For starters, Google obviously thinks that it can grab share quickly and browser customers are valuable. Just look at the folks still using Netscape–some customers are lifers. If you buy the argument that the browser will ultimately serve as an operating system–or at least be the vehicle to tap into the OS–Google will have to be a player. Double bonus for Google if it connects Chrome, Desktop and Android.

Also see: IE 8 Beta 2 ready for download

Internet Explorer 8 gets a massive makeover

Meanwhile, it’s really unclear what Google’s move means for Mozilla. Google has reupped with Mozilla to occupy Firefox’s search box through 2011. And Google practically bankrolls Mozilla and that won’t change–for now. Now Google could be construed as going hostile. The reality may be different, however. Google may want to launch Chrome to see how much share it can grab in the browser market. Perhaps Google views Chrome and Firefox as a nice IE tag team combination.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes notes:

What this means is that when Google does release this new browser then it has the potential to have quite a sudden and dramatic effect on the other players. But who’s likely to be the main casualty of Google Chrome? Right now it’s probably too early to put bets down, but my guess would be that Google’s primary target will be Internet Explorer. After all, that’s the browser with the largest market share and it’s also the browser that’s likely to look the worst when compared to Chrome (IE is slow, cumbersome, shaky, poor at following standards and perceived by many to be a security vulnerability). When it comes to ranking the browsers, apart from “it comes pre-installed on your system,” IE has little else going for it.

Firefox currently has 19 percent market share according to Janco Partners and IE’s market share has fallen to 58.5 percent. Meanwhile, Google Desktop has a 4 percent share.

Google’s browser playbook could look something like this:

• Google and Mozilla can grab collectively grab share from IE;
• If Google is unsuccessful it will at least have a business unit to acquire Mozilla Corp.;
• The Mozilla and Chrome code bases could ultimately merge;
• The more browsers targeting IE is a win for Google.

In propecia pricing other words, Google is launching a browser, but the plan is open ended. The only thing that is certain is that Google wants IE’s market share to fall further. If Google’s browser grabs 10 percent market share in a year it’s likely to take it from IE, which is finishing up its latest effort (right). And if Google’s Chrome isn’t a hit it could be a vehicle to acquire Mozilla. The Journal called Google’s browser play risky, but that’s debatable. Why not toss a browser out there and see what happens?

Update 2: After giving this Google browser move some thought I reckon that Opera is in for a world of hurt. The browsers on my desktop are getting crowded and after IE, Firefox and Google there won’t be room for Opera, which is already a stretch as the third browser download for me. Another casualty: Safari for Windows. Safari will likely be fine for the Mac, but Google’s Chrome will be a threat there too.

August 25th, 2008

Posted by Sam Diaz

If you think no one will ever know about the Web sites you were surfing last night, guess again. It may not be your spouse, your boss or a cop – but there’s growing interest in what sort of data your Internet Service Provider is collecting about your viewing habits.

As for me, I just finished reading a very interesting piece by my former Washington Post colleague Rob Pegoraro, who wrote about “deep packet inspection.” Given the technology that’s out there, monitoring Web usage has grown beyond cookies on your computer to data scouring on your ISP’s servers. Rob writes:

Peering inside the digital packets of data zipping across the Internet — in real time, for tens of thousands of users at once — was commercially impractical until recently. But the ceaseless march of processing power has made it feasible. Unsurprisingly, companies have been trying to turn this potential into profit. By tracking users’ Web habits this closely, they can gain a much more detailed picture of their interests — and then display precisely targeted, premium-priced ads. Equally unsurprising, these attempts have become a public-relations tar pit for Internet providers that experimented with this technology without giving users fair warning.

In a recent hearing on Capitol Hill, lawmakers asked dozens of providers if they had used deep packet inspection and most said they had not. But a couple, including Washington Post-owned Cable One, said it had tested it using a service provided by Redwood City-based NebuAd. Of course, everyone is saying that privacy has been respected and that personal and sensitive matters – emails, financial transactions and so on – were stripped from the data first. But how do we know? I mean, we don’t even necessarily know if our usage patterns are being monitored.

I guess I already know I’m being watched. As a Gmail user, there are ads related to the topics in my e-mail conversations. And yet, I’m OK with that. But this data packet level of inspection is just so far out of my control that it’s a bit unnerving. Case in point: If I don’t like the Gmail ads, I can stop using Gmail and go another route for my mail services. I make that decision and I control it. In the case of deep packet inspection, my ISP holds the key – not me. Rob uses an excellent analogy in his column:

Tracking via cookies is the rough equivalent of a supermarket clerk noting that you spend a lot of time in Aisle 9 checking out cereal but never duck into Aisle 2 for frozen dinners. Deep packet inspection, by contrast, is more like the clerk following you to see which boxes of cereal you eyeballed — and doing so at every store you visit, even those run by propecia persistence program other companies.

I try to surf the Web without paranoia and, if anyone was tracking my usage, they’d probably think I’m on tech news overload or would wonder why on Earth an educated adult subscribes to ridiculously sophomoric YouTube vlogs. (Hey, it’s the same reason I watch South Park – we all need a break, right?) I have no immediate problems with the idea of deep packet inspection. I think I would just like to know when and if it’s happening. And I think I’d want the option to opt-out or at least be compensated in some way for the valuable advertising data I’m providing about myself.

A week for two in Hawaii would be nice but I’d probably settle for a discount on my monthly ISP bill.

Om Malik, Thursday, August 28, 2008

Dear Comcast High-Speed Internet Customer,

We appreciate your business and strive to provide you with the best online experience possible. One of the ways we do this is through our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). The AUP outlines acceptable use of our service as well as steps we take to protect our customers from things that can negatively impact their experience online. This policy has been in place for many years and we update it periodically to keep it current with our customers' use of our service.

On October 1, 2008, we will post an updated AUP that propecia penile shrinkage will go into effect at that time.

In the updated AUP, we clarify that monthly data (or bandwidth) usage of more than 250 Gigabytes (GB) is the specific threshold that defines excessive use of our service. We have an excessive use policy because a fraction of one percent of our customers use such a disproportionate amount of bandwidth every month that they may degrade the online experience of other customers.

250 GB/month is an extremely large amount of bandwidth and it's very likely that your monthly data usage doesn't even come close to that amount. In fact, the threshold is approximately 100 times greater than the typical or median residential customer usage, which is 2 to 3 GB/month. To put it in perspective, to reach 250 GB of data usage in one month a customer would have to do any one of the following:

* Send more than 50 million plain text emails (at 5 KB/email);
* Download 62,500 songs (at 4 MB/song); or
* Download 125 standard definition movies (at 2 GB/movie).

And online gamers should know that even the heaviest multi- or single-player gaming activity would not typically come close to this threshold over the course of a month.

In addition to modifying the excessive use policy, the updated AUP contains other clarifications of terms concerning reporting violations, newsgroups, and network management. To read some helpful FAQs, please visit http://www.p.comcast.net/r?2.1.Gy.CK.1V4LGs.CfG%5fS6..N.Cw%2ao.2IeM.DOBaEXJ0.

Thank you again for choosing Comcast as your high-speed Internet provider.