Internet Control?

[Lewis Ehrhardt]

Is there someone here who can explain a few questions I have about the internet or point me to where I can find answers?

1) Who actually controls the internet? Someone has to ultimately be in control of it, I'm thinking

2) What determines what is produced in one's search for something (like particular websites pop up first in the inquiry, etc.)

3) How does a government block the internet from its people?

Just asking, thanks for any help. Lewis

[mike holden]

I am not a computer expert.

1) the internet is a conglomeration of servers, wires, broadcasts (wi-fi), lans, etc. Different people own different parts, but no one owns the whole thing, so NO ONE is in control of all of it.
2) depends on how the search engine is written. This are choices made by the programmer and result in the variations in search results. If you know (or can make good assumptions) you can tailor your webpage to rank higher than others
3) with great difficulty. They can stop physical attachment, wires, from being made. But contact through radio waves or to satellites are more difficult to control.

[Eric DeSilva]

Is there someone here who can explain a few questions I have about the internet or point me to where I can find answers?

1) Who actually controls the internet? Someone has to ultimately be in control of it, I'm thinking

2) What determines what is produced in one's search for something (like particular websites pop up first in the inquiry, etc.)

3) How does a government block the internet from its people?

Just asking, thanks for any help. Lewis

The internet is actually a distributed network, so no one really "controls" it. There are international organizations like ICANN that deal with standards for transmitting data over the internet and domain use, but that isn't really control.

What comes up in a search depends upon the search engine you use. Google, for example, is a private company that organizes data about what is where on the web and develops fast algorithms that attempt to bring you relevant results quickly. But at the same time, Google also charges for "adwords" and companies pay for the privilege of appearing on your results page based on terms you search for.

Government intervention can be regulatory--they can simply create laws that restrict what internet access providers can do--or, in some cases, the internet services providers are owned by or very beholden to the government.

[Mike Henderson]

There's generally only a few communication links into a country. And at the end of each link is a router. You can program that router to deny access to certain web sites but there are ways to get around it. For example, people in other countries will provide a web site that allows someone to redirect their request to a banned web site. Then that site can be blocked, and an new redirect site will be put up. So it's a constant battle.

Governments can also make accessing certain web sites a crime and try to track down people who are accessing those sites. Lots of ways but in the long run, it's a losing battle for the government.

Mike

[Chuck Wintle]

Is there someone here who can explain a few questions I have about the internet or point me to where I can find answers?

1) Who actually controls the internet? Someone has to ultimately be in control of it, I'm thinking

2) What determines what is produced in one's search for something (like particular websites pop up first in the inquiry, etc.)

3) How does a government block the internet from its people?

Just asking, thanks for any help. Lewis

Websites contain keywords in the HTML that a search engine looks for and a good website designer will pay a lot of attention to which keywords are used. The better these are selected the more search engines will find them and often the website designer will be compensated if the google analytics part of the HTML shows a lot of internet traffic to their site.

As was posted no one actually owns the internet..it is a distribution of servers, wires etc that make it what it is.

They can use blocking of IP address right at the server to block access to certain sites. The United Nations is seeking control of the internet...lets hope that never happens because it is still relatively free for now.

[Jeff Erbele]

Is there someone here who can explain a few questions I have about the internet or point me to where I can find answers?

1) Who actually controls the internet? Someone has to ultimately be in control of it, I'm thinking
2) What determines what is produced in one's search for something (like particular websites pop up first in the inquiry, etc.)
3) How does a government block the internet from its people?

Just asking, thanks for any help. Lewis

1.) First the internet and the world wide web are two different things and an intranet is yet another.

Here are some links that explain these things in detail:
http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/internet-world-wide-web-are-not-same-thing-n51011
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intranet

Related is ICANN - Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICANN

I have a leased domain name for my business website and and related business email addresses with the extension ".com" (dot com) which is registered with ICANN. Typically you can find out who the owner of a website is, on Domain Name Look Up at: www.whois.com
...but there is a way to block that.

2.) Search results are mostly determined by the web search engine you use / ask or (query):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engines

3.) Basically a government takes over the ISP's - the Internet Service Providers.

http://www.livescience.com/32965-how-do-you-shut-down-the-internet-whole-country.html
Graphic Depiction: http://www.technewsdaily.com/1964-how-to-kill-the-internet.html

If these things fail, I'll resort to my HAM Radio :)
...breaking our HOA rules, once I start erecting effective and directional antenna's; but at that point they probably won't care ...or be very concerned with rules

[Dan Hintz]

I'll just point to Jeff's answers and call it a day... :D

[Myk Rian]

Al Gore invented it, therefore Al Gore owns it.

[Charles Wiggins]

I'll just point to Jeff's answers and call it a day... :D

+1

(I am writing this because SMC requires at least a 10 character reply and therefore won't allow the simple answer "+1" to stand alone.)