WASHINGTON, January 21, 2010 – Today’s edition of The New York Times includes a story about internet speed tests, including BroadbandCensus.com, and the various approaches that each of the major providers take in offering speed tests.
The piece, “How Fast is Your Web Connection?” by Peter Wayner, includes ISPGeeks.com, Toast.net, VisualWare, Pingtest.net, and DSLReports.com, along with BroadbandCensus.com.
The article discusses what BroadbandCensus.com aims to achieve in allowing users to “crowdsource” and share data about their internet connections:
Some users are also setting up Web sites to share test results so others can see the general performance of an Internet service provider. DSLReports.com and BroadbandCensus.com, for instance, both offer tests and collect their results to produce reports to help consumers decide whether problems are sporadic or part of a larger pattern.
Among the speed tests mentioned in the article, BroadbandCensus.com is the only one that uses the open source Network Diagnostic Tool of Internet2.
If you’d like to participate in the Broadband Census, and take the BroadbandCensus.com speed test, click here.