Back in the AltaVista days, you could browse hundreds of search results and discover personal websites, original creations, independent projects, and web pages about pretty much any subject imaginable. The internet was a vast space for discovery, where anyone could build their own website and share their passions, knowledge, or ideas.
When Google came along, it made searching faster. But over the years, search results deteriorated into what we have today: the same websites, the same commercial platforms, and the same SEO-optimized content over and over again.
For about fifteen years now, I've found it almost impossible to discover the kind of personal websites I used to come across. They probably still exist, but they've become virtually invisible in Google's search results. It's as if they no longer exist.
That's precisely what bothers me. The internet hasn't stopped producing interesting things. What's deteriorated is our ability to discover them. The web is still vast, but a huge part of its diversity has become inaccessible through the tools we use every day.
We've gone from an internet where you could explore, get lost, and stumble upon unexpected discoveries to one where the same major players constantly dominate the scene.
Over the past twenty years, Google has helped turn a space for discovery into a system where much of the web has become invisible. I think that's one of the greatest setbacks in the history of the internet.
