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My god, the web has become so garbage that we're going back to web directories...

by AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago

matheusmoreira 5y ago
Maybe we should have never left. It's Google search and their advertising that destroyed the web we all used to enjoy.
- abraxas 5y ago
  This is not the case. At least it wasn't the case in the late nineties and early naughts. The web then was full of banner and popup and pop under ads (punch the monkey, remember?). Google was a breath of fresh air then with a clean site and text only ads. No question they strayed from that early vision but they are still far from the worst offenders.
  - gunapologist99 5y ago
    Exactly. After they bought Doubleclick and promised they wouldn't merge the two third-party cookies and the associated data, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. No display advertising ever again! And the web smelled like roses ever since.
  - rapnie 5y ago
    > but they are still far from the worst offenders. Maybe in the type of ads they show. But don't forget increasingly garbage search results that are also indirectly related to the whole ad-tech business they facilitate.
    - mr_mitm 5y ago
      Which search engine do you find shows better search results? I keep coming back to Google because no one else even comes close to the quality of search results. That was true even more so when Google started out. Their competition was Yahoo and AltaVista, which were practically useless. I'd argue that Google has done a lot for the web. But I can agree with the sentiment that they took a turn for the worse at some point.
      - freediver 5y ago
        If what you are looking for is primarly better search results and you do not mind paying for it, check out https://kagi.com https://kagi.com
cronix 5y ago
Yes, we're "reimagining" web directories.
themodelplumber 5y ago
I doubt they ever went obsolete, insofar as they are essentially categorized lists of links to things...but from a more cultural/ephemeral viewpoint they do hit different. :-) In my experience, the more subjective they are, the better, so I'm not sure I'd have much use for the generalized kind anymore. The criteria can be way too loose if you're looking to meet a qualitative standard...

My god, the web has become so garbage that we're going back to web directories...

matheusmoreira 5y ago

Maybe we should have never left. It's Google search and their advertising that destroyed the web we all used to enjoy.

abraxas 5y ago
This is not the case. At least it wasn't the case in the late nineties and early naughts. The web then was full of banner and popup and pop under ads (punch the monkey, remember?). Google was a breath of fresh air then with a clean site and text only ads. No question they strayed from that early vision but they are still far from the worst offenders.
- gunapologist99 5y ago
  Exactly. After they bought Doubleclick and promised they wouldn't merge the two third-party cookies and the associated data, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. No display advertising ever again! And the web smelled like roses ever since.
- rapnie 5y ago
  > but they are still far from the worst offenders. Maybe in the type of ads they show. But don't forget increasingly garbage search results that are also indirectly related to the whole ad-tech business they facilitate.
  - mr_mitm 5y ago
    Which search engine do you find shows better search results? I keep coming back to Google because no one else even comes close to the quality of search results. That was true even more so when Google started out. Their competition was Yahoo and AltaVista, which were practically useless. I'd argue that Google has done a lot for the web. But I can agree with the sentiment that they took a turn for the worse at some point.
    - freediver 5y ago
      If what you are looking for is primarly better search results and you do not mind paying for it, check out https://kagi.com https://kagi.com

cronix 5y ago

Yes, we're "reimagining" web directories.

themodelplumber 5y ago

I doubt they ever went obsolete, insofar as they are essentially categorized lists of links to things...but from a more cultural/ephemeral viewpoint they do hit different. :-) In my experience, the more subjective they are, the better, so I'm not sure I'd have much use for the generalized kind anymore. The criteria can be way too loose if you're looking to meet a qualitative standard...