Internet[/caption]Carol Forsloff with Michael Delaney: As a website that continues to grow rapidly, with 350,000 pageviews monthly, GHN’s The Journal of Humanitarian Affairs, is among those with issues in performance, although not as much as other news sites complain. But is it just the growth of an individual website, or is there a critical mass situation with dominance of certain companies in the speed and facility of web surfing?
Technological professionals maintain that the problem with delays, errors and overall slow traffic has everything to do with the dominance of certain Internet giants. While most people believe there is “something wrong” with their computers, often it is the traffic that occurs in areas of the day, when certain large companies bring an increase in visitors.
Social media figures into much of the growth, especially with the Facebook-as-news phenomenon. But companies like Netflix predominate much of the spurt in activity. Most of that traffic comes in the evening hours, but it has also been found that social media activity might increase at certain hours, but school children and working adults participate during normal working and school hours. It is the overall response to the immediate need for gratification, to see that latest sound-bite of news or the most recent comment from a friend about the prom or a problem at the office.
The Internet Traffic Report tells the story. The graph shows that there is a relatively level playing field for the Internet gremlins to score visitors around the globe. But some folks score better than others, with Asia limping and South America and Australia sprinting along. So those boasting about their website numbers are in part correct, as increased traffic in areas that show difficulty with overall speed and access will be impacted more than others.
Technicians give a variety of reasons for the ordinary user to explore to determine causes of slow access. Many of these individuals, however, are involved in the services to help modify or eliminate the problem. The major reason, however, is that more and more people are now sharing the Internet, through cables, telephone lines and a variety of different equipment devices, that are impacted by conditions of weather and other difficulties, along with the fact that as communication becomes broader, it also takes more time to get from here to there. As one support person at Hostgator, a large website server, tells us, “We are sharing a big space, but some of the big boys are taking bigger and bigger shares, even as more and more people are involved in using the Internet. So some things you can control, and some you can’t.”
