Not to sound ignorant, but what's the point? Why would Netflix go through the trouble of acquiring what I suspect to be a fairly expensive domain just to show how fast one's internet speed is?
> Why would Netflix go through the trouble of acquiring what I suspect to be a fairly expensive domain just to show how fast one's internet speed is?
Fast.com shows how fast your connection to Netflix's servers are.
Given how popular a use of the internet Netflix is (and that using it for Netflix is one of the reasons people pay for particular internet speeds), and given that many ISPs provide connections which, for various reasons, provide less speed on connections to Netflix than users might expect from advertised speeds, this seems to be useful both to consumers and Netflix. The motives clearly are not altruistic, even though there is consumer utility.
Probaby going to annoy the heck out of a lot of ISPs...
> I find it hard to believe their motives are purely altruistic.
Absolutely selfish. Their goal is to make boatloads of money by pressuring ISPs to allow their customers to access Netflix at the speeds the customers paid for. Once customers can use their high speed internet, many will choose to be Netflix customers.
It's interesting to describe something that gets people what they pay for as selfish on the part of a third party. I mean, yes, there is something in it for netflix, but it arises from making things better for their users. I'd describe that as win-win, personally.
Now, killing performance on a service your users want so you can force an inferior product on them? That's selfish.
> It's interesting to describe something that gets people what they pay for as selfish on the part of a third party.
It's selfish because it is done with the goal of increasing Netflix's revenue.
Now, in this case selfish doesn't mean evil. To the contrary, Netflix's success will mean happier people, more satisfied customers. Much in the same way auto manufacturers make safer cars for higher profits, or surgeons can make a comfortable living saving lives.
Netflix is simply trying to make a buck, and if some people get helped in the process, that's just collateral benefit.
>Now, in this case selfish doesn't mean evil. To the contrary, Netflix's success will mean happier people, more satisfied customers. Much in the same way auto manufacturers make safer cars for higher profits, or surgeons can make a comfortable living saving lives.
I would not call that "selfish", nor would I call it "altruistic". I would perhaps say "fair" or "just".
"Selfish" is generally a negative word. We often refer to any self-regarding behavior as selfish: both rational self-interest pursued in a manner respecting the needs of others, and the miserliness or enviousness that (often deliberately) pursues self-interest at the expense of others needs. Sometimes we state the equivocation in the form of a paradox to catch our audience's attention (the capitalist's aphorism "greed is good") and sometimes as a slur ("those greedy capitalists!"). However, I think it would be helpful if in the normal case we recognized that not all self-regarding behavior is selfish.
Note: I don't mean to nitpick, and I agree with the spirit of your post. Rather, your words were to me a catalyst for some thoughts on moral discourse.
If this (the concept/reasons behind fast.com) gets promoted correctly to (non-techie) consumers, then this could serve to get a conversation going at least as it pertains to consumer-centric concerns such as net neutrality, non-fraud business tactics (Dear ISP, I pay you X money so I expect Y level of service), etc. Sure, net neutrality and fraud are not new topics...but within the technology space, they're often difficult for consumers to wrap their brain around, and of course not in the best position to call out their providers (whenever bad behavior occurs). Simple demonstrations like this help to arm and inform the regular Joe/Jane to make better decisions related to how to spend their hard-earned money.
Although I'll admit that I'm a biased fan of netflix, kudos to them for doing this!
Considering Netflix accounts for 37% of all downstream traffic on the entire internet during peak hours it seems that the investment would be well worth the cost of the domain if they are having trouble with ISP's limiting users speeds to their servers (and we know they are!). Now instead of ISP's gaming speedtest.net by giving it priority speeds, Netflix gives users something to test and view the bandwidth being served to their streaming servers.
