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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 w
by 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 agoI 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.