On the Internet, the Big Get Bigger

Excerpt from an article by Nicholas Carr in the Guardian last week:

On the internet, the big get bigger. It wasn't supposed to be like that. When the web arrived in the early 1990s, it was heralded as a liberating force that would free us from the confines of gated communities like AOL and Compuserve. The internet was supposed to be an open, democratic medium, an information bazaar putting individuals on the same footing as big companies.

In the end, though, the internet seems to be following the same pattern that has always characterised popular media. A few huge outlets come to dominate readership and viewership and smaller, more specialised ones are consigned to the periphery. Most of the largest sites are now in the midst of acquisition sprees or expansion programs intended to extend their dominion.

Link: The net is being carved up into information plantations.

See also the discussion at Nicholas Carr's blog, and the cartoon by Oliver Widder.