The Internet is looking more and more like the real world – dominated by big players and major corporations – and it's all thanks to Google, web pioneer Michael Wolff told a crowd of digital media mavens on Monday.

Speaking at nextMEDIA, a two-day Toronto conference that ends with the Canadian New Media Awards, the founder of Newser.com predicted the impending end to the "open Internet" as we know it.

Instead of navigating the Internet independently, users are increasingly using multi-faceted sites like Facebook and Netflix to access varying types of content.

Facebook's recently launched email and chat applications are just two of the many developments keeping users from leaving the site.

Wolff predicts a future where these sites dominate Internet usage, as described in his controversial article "The Web is Dead. Long Live the Internet," published in the August issue of Wired magazine.

"I started the first Internet company in New York in 1993, so I have seen every phase of this business," he told a room of iPad-tapping executives at the Design Exchange on Monday. "This one is among the most dramatic and most depressing."

The Internet's old glory, where any user's content had an equal chance at attracting an audience, is quickly giving way to a moderated experience dominated by the web's biggest presences.

"The web we have grown up with, where everyone could participate and have a stake with little or no cost, is more or less going away," Wolff says. "It's being transformed into a more recognizable world of large players and moguls."

How did this happen? Google's competitors began vying for a share of its success, creating closed networks designed to keep users away from Google's ubiquitous offerings.

"Apple, Facebook, Netflix, Twitter... These are all players that see being as dominant as their fundamental business model," Wolff says.

The subject was later broached in a panel discussion titled Open vs. Closed: Content Distribution in the Digital Age.

Digital media expert Richard Kanee says Netflix has already figured out how to simulate the open Internet by making its video-streaming service available across several platforms, from smartphones to gaming consoles.

"I call it 'fauxpen,'" he says. "They have a closed system, but they know the consumer wants choice."

Fearful that corporations with money to spend will eventually receive preferential treatment when it comes to web traffic, groups like SaveOurNet.ca have formed to push legislators to ensure Internet bandwidth remains available to everyone equally.

On Monday, Mozilla Drumbeat's Matt Thompson – who won a 2007 Webby award for a viral video on net neutrality – reminded the audience that the success of the Internet so far has been based on its accessibility.

"The goal of 'open' is to create an entrepreneurial environment where the person with the best idea wins, with no artificial barriers," he says.

"The goal is not 'anything goes, piracy is OK, do whatever you want.' The goal is to reward innovation. If you have a great piece of video content that you could never get onto cable television, you can compete and succeed."

nextMEDIA continues Tuesday, with the Canadian New Media awards to be held Wednesday night at the Design Exchange.