'Father of the web' defends the commercial net

Tim Berners-Lee, the man credited with inventing the world wide web, used an exclusive interview with silicon.com to hit back at those who have berated the growing commercialism of the web.

Although he admitted the internet was originally intended to allow the sharing of information on a universal basis and not for commerce, 'the father of the web' scotched the notion that big business was having far too much influence on the net. He said: "One of the fallacies is that commerce is driving out everything else. The other websites are still there. "Somebody said to me the other day, 'there's so much garbage here.' So I said: 'Hold on a minute, why are you reading it? There's no obligation - If you don't like the commercial sites, don't go there." Berners-Lee, director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), said online shopping was becoming ever more popular and predicted that commercialism on the net wouldn't squeeze out traditional retailers. He said: "The fact is a lot of people like shopping on the web - I do but I also shop on the high street." He did warn however that the ecommerce would kill off the out of town mall Robin Bloor, CEO at Bloor Research agreed that commerce was not killing everything else on the web, but would help speed the web in reaching its full potential much faster. He said: "The web is one of the greatest aids around today but business use is improving it all the time. Commerce is the driver that sends it in the direction it's moving." Bloor said the internet is more powerful as a commercial medium than as a closed forum for academics, which is how it was originally used.