Elaine Ou, Columnist

The Internet Has Become a Cluttered, Proprietary Mess

A truly open web may be a quixotic quest, but it would be a godsend.

Things have gotten a bit messy.

Photographer: Michael Bocchieri/Getty Images
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The internet was built on open standards and interoperability, but networks tend to balkanize.

If you’ve ever tried to receive an email from me through Gmail, it probably went to spam. My company runs its own email server, and Google feels that our mail authentication is inadequate. And remember those Flash-based websites from the aughts? They’re no longer supported by major browsers, and entirely blocked from Apple’s mobile devices.