O'Reilly Warns Of Web War

The Web, which began life as an open community where information and tools were freely shared across geographic, political, and social boundaries, is in danger of becoming segmented into a federation of closed camps led by a handful of increasingly powerful vendors, said Internet pundit Tim O'Reilly. O'Reilly said efforts by Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, and other tech vendors -- as well as publishers like Rupert Murdoch's Dow Jones -- to create closed communities around their products and services are jeopardizing the freedom, and the spirit, of the Web. "It's no longer about the Internet as a platform," said O'Reilly. "It's Google as a platform, it's Amazon as a platform, it's Microsoft as a platform," he said