Abstract

The web was ushered in with great expectations, formally in May 1994, in a conference called World Wide Web I, This event, in hindsight, is sometimes referred to as the Woodstock of the web. The web and Mosaic, the graphical browser, which was announced soon after has revolutionized the internet. For most people, the internet is the web, while one of the monopolist tech-corporations wants the world to view their platforms to be not only the web but the Internet! The web has given rise to a number of rich powerful corporations which did not exist before its advent. The easy to use graphical interface and the cell phone with its tiny screen have become the de-facto interface to all kinds of applications and have provided new methods of communication and connections. The control of all this by a small number of monopolistic corporations, who have amassed last quantities of data on people, has created a situation which has become a web of betrayal of the promise of sharing and providing information, freely. We also consider the remote possibility of a new freer web without monopolies.