3 ms·

Just like huge public libraries or our 200 channel, 24/7 television systems; there are some real 'gems' out there on the Internet but they are drowned out by th

Just like huge public libraries or our 200 channel, 24/7 television systems; there are some real 'gems' out there on the Internet but they are drowned out by the 95%+ of worthless drivel. The task is finding meaningful content in a world of mostly pablum, scams, and other harmful content. With hundreds of millions of websites, you absolutely need search capabilities like Google (at least how it was in its early days) in order to find relevant information. The problem of course, is that the search sites are run by algorithms that attempt to direct your search based on criteria that is often the opposite of what you desire. It is definitely a 'Centralized vs Decentralized' situation. The Internet was originally designed to be a decentralized structure where every site was a pure 'peer-to-peer' connection where it was so easy to jump from place to place without being re-routed to the central players. Now all the big sites like Facebook are designed to be walled-gardens that want to control everything you see.

xwdv 4y ago
Although we have more websites now than ever it feels like the internet of today is much smaller, since people are increasingly funneled into the same popular websites that control most of the market share. I used to visit new websites daily in the old days, now I just loop between a few big destinations. I don’t think most people even know how to search for websites anymore that are not blessed by algorithms. Manual search skills have atrophied. The concept of websites having a dedicated section of links to similar sites of interest is extinct, perhaps even penalized by big search engines. Only a small subset of users still share hidden gems amongst themselves, speaking in hushed tones. Purveyors of the old web.
- jfengel 4y ago
  I do not get the fondness for "the old web". There was a ton of crap. There are many, many more tons of crap today. Tik Tok will practically mainline it into your veins. Instagram and other social media sites exist for any other media types you might want. You don't need to search for it; the feeds will hand it to you. But I don't think of that as any worse than "link rings". The big aggregators may be those "same popular web sites" but the content is provided by the users, same as on any geocities site. They've just abstracted out the content management parts, so that the creators of that random crap can create random crap. I hear this a lot on Hacker News, and I can't help but wonder how much of it is "I loved the days when everybody on the Internet had to create their own web site, so their tastes were similar to mine because I'm also the sort of person with the skills and interest in creating my own web site." And if so, I understand why people on Hacker News might find that appealing, though I personally appreciate the greater breadth of available content now.

xwdv 4y ago

Although we have more websites now than ever it feels like the internet of today is much smaller, since people are increasingly funneled into the same popular websites that control most of the market share. I used to visit new websites daily in the old days, now I just loop between a few big destinations. I don’t think most people even know how to search for websites anymore that are not blessed by algorithms. Manual search skills have atrophied. The concept of websites having a dedicated section of links to similar sites of interest is extinct, perhaps even penalized by big search engines. Only a small subset of users still share hidden gems amongst themselves, speaking in hushed tones. Purveyors of the old web.

jfengel 4y ago
I do not get the fondness for "the old web". There was a ton of crap. There are many, many more tons of crap today. Tik Tok will practically mainline it into your veins. Instagram and other social media sites exist for any other media types you might want. You don't need to search for it; the feeds will hand it to you. But I don't think of that as any worse than "link rings". The big aggregators may be those "same popular web sites" but the content is provided by the users, same as on any geocities site. They've just abstracted out the content management parts, so that the creators of that random crap can create random crap. I hear this a lot on Hacker News, and I can't help but wonder how much of it is "I loved the days when everybody on the Internet had to create their own web site, so their tastes were similar to mine because I'm also the sort of person with the skills and interest in creating my own web site." And if so, I understand why people on Hacker News might find that appealing, though I personally appreciate the greater breadth of available content now.