A Framework for Improving Web Affordability and Inclusiveness

Abstract

Today’s Web remains too expensive for many Internet users, especially in developing regions. Unfortunately, the rising complexity of the Web makes affordability an even bigger concern as it stands to limit users’ access to Internet services. We propose a novel framework and a fairness metric for rethinking Web architecture for affordability and inclusion. Our proposed framework systematically adapts Web complexity based on geographic variations in mobile broadband prices and income levels. We conduct a cross-country analysis of 99 countries, showing that our framework can better balance affordability and webpage quality while preserving user privacy. To adapt Web complexity, our framework solves an optimization problem to produce web pages that maximize page quality while reducing the webpage to a given target size.