Is DiggBar Twitter’s New Power Tool?.
This will be a trend-starter. The reason I believe this is that I investigated implementing an iframed toolbar in-line at the ISP edge some time ago shortly before Phorm and friends gave ISP-side innovation a bad name and the ball appeared to swing over to the net-neutrality camp.
I see an HTML toolbar an an excellent ISP communication device for ‘events’ and to assist novice users. Beyond that, I’m intrigued but it gets politically and ethically difficult ( I mean ‘ethically’ not as a confession but as recognition that what I think may not necessarily be best or in the interests of others).
But with the DiggBar we will probably see this become commonplace as an implementation of Web2.0 apps wanting to ride shotgun on the user experience to other destinations without installing in the browser.
It’s just re-inventing the traditional browser add-on toolbar (which is not seen as infringing on net neutrality if provided by the ISP. Tricky isn’t it).
I don’t see this as fundamentally different to the ISP doing likewise (assuming it’s not covert) however, I’m also attentive to the argument that ISPs are just carriers (though the anti-QoS argument of the net-neuts takes their case to the point of the ridiculous).
This can be Good for the ISP also after all, if we’re not common carriers then we may start to assume responsibilities that we happily can abdicate in our current role (hah!)
This is why the ISP I’m shortly launching will follow the mantra of Keep It Simple Stupid. That brand will excel at a simple role with an excellent product with some innovation around support and a lot of customer self-service - and leave the road ahead clear for what dreams may come.
The DiggBar is sweet. Try it, it doesn’t need to install.
Update: Rogers Cable was a more relevant example.
Instead of the user receiving an HTTP 404 ‘page not found’ (from the remote server), Roger’s intercepted the response and sent a custom response to which they’ve added both some ‘user friendliness’ (probably more userful than the retarded Microsoft friendliness) and some links.
Obviously, they’re monetising through Yahoo and this is a great idea. But, you can’t just start doing it on existing customers.
I see this as a great way to move internet access towards free but, a year later, I’m still not sure.
Trouble is, ‘us lot’ if we didn’t create the ISP industry, we were certainly part of it’s evolution and it’s a bit of a rub to have later-comers and politicians try to dictate what we should be. ‘Forcibly re-invented’ (there’s a lot of being forced going on).
Then again, they are the market (not the pollies silly) so there’s no point fighting if the writing is on the wall. Better to focus on what they want to buy (DiggBars).
PS Verisign, #1 in SSL certificates and managers of the DNS root servers, did the exact same thing.
In their case, this trusted entity literally hijacked the DNS and replaced failed lookups with A records that resolved to Verisign web pages.
What is it with these people. Why can they only implement a good idea as a conniving plot!
