And Usenet groups for discussion. A lot of the traffic (especially in pre-Google times) was due to organic networking, i.e., not an AI algorithm for "engagemen

And Usenet groups for discussion. A lot of the traffic (especially in pre-Google times) was due to organic networking, i.e., not an AI algorithm for "engagement", but people on their websites recommending cool websites—knowledge, humor, and jokes (it was big things before social media), interactive experiences (especially Flash, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43225560 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43225560), fun projects, personal social profiles with GeekCode, etc.