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The old internet shows signs of quietly coming back

(cheapskatesguide.org)
622 points ColinWright | 1 comments | 25 Jan 22 22:24 UTC | HN request time: 0.4s | source
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aluminussoma ◴[25 Jan 22 23:18 UTC] No.30079524[source]▶
The Internet today feels like a big box strip mall in suburbia. While visiting my home town, I looked for a local, independent hardware store. There was only Home Depot and Lowe's. Then I realize how few independent businesses were left.

On the Internet, you have Google, Amazon, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter. Much of the good content is hidden in their secret gardens (Facebook, Twitter, and increasingly Reddit).

Discovery needs to be reimagined. Google search directs traffic but now everyone has a SEO manager to get their site to the top. If we want to see the Internet like before, original content needs to be prioritized over content like Pinterest, without needing to do anything special.

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1. m-i-l ◴[26 Jan 22 09:49 UTC] No.30083569[source]▶
I used a "high street filled with shops" vs "public library filled with books" analogy for the current internet vs old internet a year or so back:

" ...imagine you live in a town which has a high street filled with shops trying to sell you things, and a public library filled with books trying to tell you things. If you want to buy something you go down the high street to look at the shops, and if you want to read something you go into the library to look for a book. Both activities can co-exist - good libraries do not put shops out of business or vice versa. But you don't want both activities to happen at the same time - you don't want a library filled with salespeople trying to get between you and your books, because that would be distinctly unhelpful at best and downright annoying at worst. The problem is that the internet has turned into a city that is all shops and no libraries. Not even local independent shops at that, just giant out-of-town retail malls... "[0]

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25454867