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Net neutrality and related broadband policies are complex, contentious subjects because all parties realize that the decisions made now could determine the distribution of power on the Internet for decades while also shaping its progress and development. Both sides in this debate have rich, powerful allies. On the pro side is the High Tech Broadband Coalition, whose members include employees from Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, and the Save the Internet Coalition. On the anti- side, phone companies and cable companies want the right to offer tiered services and charge higher rates for better-quality Internet access.

As with many questions about the future of technology, I’m afraid that the only completely honest answer to the questions in the title of this post is probably “I don’t know and neither does anyone else”. So pardon me while I make a provisional attempt to answer this unanswerable question.

Teaching, learning and research have always been social activities involving heavy reliance on trust, reputation and brand awareness., and these social aspects of information seeking behavior grow more prevalent every year. This natural tendency to seek reliable, community-validated information sources has traditionally drawn people to libraries for two reasons.

News about an update to Google Reader can’t compete with the buzz surrounding the launch of the iPad, but any feature that helps us mitigate information overload is good news in my opinion, especially if you happen to be a reference librarians or an information junkie. 

The ALA Washington Office will be participating in the Google Policy Fellowship program for the summer of 2010. Google Policy Fellows work for ten weeks during the summer at ALA Washington or at other public interest organizations involved in debates on broadband and access policy, copyright reform, online privacy, and open government. In particular, ALA encourages master’s and doctoral students in library and information studies with an interest in national public policy to apply for this fellowship.

Check out the Google Policy Fellow website for pertinent details. Applications are due Monday, December 28, 2009.

There’s a lot more competition among search engines right now, compared with a year ago.  Some, such as Bing and Google Squared, are updates to existing engines.