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I don't think it is the software that is the blocker for people doing this. It's not like it was easy in the old days - if anything it is easier today to creat

I don't think it is the software that is the blocker for people doing this. It's not like it was easy in the old days - if anything it is easier today to create a personal-if-bland site on one of the many free WYSIWYG editors that use templates (I know the article mentions this) yet they don't. And let's face it search engines were utter trash until early-google arrived so it's not like you could count on your site being easily found (...and some may argue the current utility of search engines - or lack of! - puts us back where we were pre-google era anyway...) I think there are some other reasons - I don't know which one(s) (if any) are most true or not: - maybe people still are doing it but we just don't see it now the net is so much larger? Look at Gemini protocol et al - people are doing things but not in a necessarily eye-catching way - maybe video is the kids' new HTML? There is some weird/creative stuff on tiktok etc al. Even getting photos let alone 4k video into a computer was hard in the early/mid 90s. - it just went out of fashion - the novelty wore off - people see the internet as a utility these days, and take it for granted - everyone is spending all their time trying to bootstrap a Like-OpenAi-But-For-Ride-Hailing start-up instead Tl;dr - motivated individuals will build something if they want to, but I think the motivation has gone. I don't think it is because they feel constrained by templates

smaudet 2y ago
> puts us back where we were pre-google era anyway... Google (search) is becoming increasingly less relevant. I know of DuckDuckGo / Kagi, a quick search (on DuckDuckGo) shows a lot of other search engines such as Mojeek, Ecosia, Qwant, Brave: https://proton.me/blog/alternative-search-engines https://proton.me/blog/alternative-search-engines As well as a lot of what I'd call "domain specific" search engines like Wolfram Alpha, various targeted social media engines, etc: https://neilpatel.com/blog/alternative-search-engines/ https://neilpatel.com/blog/alternative-search-engines/ However I wonder if it would be technically feasible to distribute the search problem instead - Mastodon for search. Technically a node only needs to spend time spidering results with a simple variation on something like PageRank, then some trust/value mechanism needs worked out among the nodes. The problem with the rise of new competing engines is just that, their competition. Lets say one, e.g. Kagi, becomes the de-facto quality non-AI search engine in 5 years, there's nothing to stop them being bought/sold/bankrupted (financially/morally/infested with secret AI).
rchaud 2y ago
> Tl;dr - motivated individuals will build something if they want to, but I think the motivation has gone. Author here: you are right, but it's a shame that those who are motivated skew towards building a "product" of some sort, like a Substack, or a "personal brand". This means they will be well-served by the existing business-focused options out there. And on the other side of the spectrum, there are creatives making cool things on itch.io, Blender, and elsewhere. It would be great if there was a "middle ground" option for the average weirdo that could use a pure drag-and-drop anywhere web canvas to express ideas, without being hamstrung by the steep learning curve of running anything beyond Medium.com.

smaudet 2y ago

> puts us back where we were pre-google era anyway... Google (search) is becoming increasingly less relevant. I know of DuckDuckGo / Kagi, a quick search (on DuckDuckGo) shows a lot of other search engines such as Mojeek, Ecosia, Qwant, Brave: https://proton.me/blog/alternative-search-engines https://proton.me/blog/alternative-search-engines As well as a lot of what I'd call "domain specific" search engines like Wolfram Alpha, various targeted social media engines, etc: https://neilpatel.com/blog/alternative-search-engines/ https://neilpatel.com/blog/alternative-search-engines/ However I wonder if it would be technically feasible to distribute the search problem instead - Mastodon for search. Technically a node only needs to spend time spidering results with a simple variation on something like PageRank, then some trust/value mechanism needs worked out among the nodes. The problem with the rise of new competing engines is just that, their competition. Lets say one, e.g. Kagi, becomes the de-facto quality non-AI search engine in 5 years, there's nothing to stop them being bought/sold/bankrupted (financially/morally/infested with secret AI).

rchaud 2y ago

> Tl;dr - motivated individuals will build something if they want to, but I think the motivation has gone. Author here: you are right, but it's a shame that those who are motivated skew towards building a "product" of some sort, like a Substack, or a "personal brand". This means they will be well-served by the existing business-focused options out there. And on the other side of the spectrum, there are creatives making cool things on itch.io, Blender, and elsewhere. It would be great if there was a "middle ground" option for the average weirdo that could use a pure drag-and-drop anywhere web canvas to express ideas, without being hamstrung by the steep learning curve of running anything beyond Medium.com.