Why is the Internet so freakin slow? and probably the biggest business idea ever.

If you go to web design and development blogs (six revisions and smashing magazine are two good ones) you’ll see the writers going on and on about the great new technologies that are even as we speak expanding the functional capabilities of the web.  I worry though….

I worry because it seems that in the last few years the Internet has gotten slower and slower.  This slowness comes from two sources.  1) Developers are figuring out how to extend the functionality of what can be done in your browser to a staggering degree.   and  2)  Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) are either unwilling or unable to keep up.

I still remember back in the early 2000′s at the time of the .com bubble burst.  I had just gone to college and tasted my first non-dialup high-speed internet connection.  There was way more bandwidth than the market required (one of the causes of the crash) and things online were good.  We weren’t watching much video online or using many complex web apps, so basic surfing and content consumption was an absolute joy.

But now look at us.  We’re addicted to web apps like twitter and facebook, we spend all our time online, and we’re absolutely clogging the pipes that make the Internet work.

So why is this an amazing business opportunity?

This is a HUGE problem and it’s only getting huger.  If anyone out there has a good solution I can almost guarantee that there are plenty of investors who would give it a shot.

The future will very likely look nothing like the present.  We need new and innovative solutions.  We need new options for getting connected.  We need someone to do for Internet service what Vonage did for phone service, which means thinking about it in an entirely new way.