Live data from Hacker News

Does anyone remember websites?

tttthis.com

171–180 of 386 posts

Re: Does anyone remember websites?

#171
post #167

Check out the search engine at http://wiby.me From their about page: Search engines like Google are indispensable, able to find answers to all of your technical questions; but along the way, the fun of web surfing was lost. In the early days of the web, pages were made primarily by hobbyists, academics, and computer savvy people about subjects they were interested in. Later on, the web became saturated with commercia…

I am going to lose so many hours to this. Thanks!

Re: Does anyone remember websites?

#172
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is not great for finding stuff. I’ve complained at length about how bad it is for doing research, but recently I’ve also found it’s totally useless for finding things like reviews of products (unless it’s something like the new iPhone). It’s like legitimate reviews are a casualty in the war between Google and clickbait SEO crap.

People don't search the same. For example, if I'm looking for something, I rarely use Google. Always Reddit, which will take me to a specific community with a wiki, and discussion. My Girlfriend will type something into Google, without using an Adblocker, and click on the first thing (which is always an ad), and filled with SEO garbage. I'm assuming most people search this way as well, which is why it's so lucrative.

ah yes, normal users

Re: Does anyone remember websites?

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nowadays, anyone with a basic understanding of search engines can find almost anything they want within seconds. Almost anything popular and rather insipid, yes. Try to find more detailed information on very specific topics, however, and you'll discover that search engines like Google have been optimising more and more for the former content, making it harder to find the latter. I don't think that's a good thing at a…

>> Try to find more detailed information on very specific topics, however, and you'll discover that search engines like Google have been optimising more and more for the former content, making it harder to find the latter. I don't think that's a good thing at all. This. A thousand times, this. I really feel is the unfortunate consequences of our short attention span and everyone marketing towards an insanely short at…

Agreed 1000x, today I needed to do a real search on a subject and all I got on the first pages was total crap...

Re: Does anyone remember websites?

#174

I do remember those websites. For me, the difference is that now the Web is much more useful, but back then it was a lot more fun. True, you could sometimes waste hours following random links hoping to find something good, but the thrill of discovery when you stumbled across a gold mine of information was a huge part of the appeal. Nowadays, anyone with a basic understanding of search engines can find almost anything…

Nowadays, anyone with a basic understanding of search engines can find almost anything they want within seconds. Almost anything popular and rather insipid, yes. Try to find more detailed information on very specific topics, however, and you'll discover that search engines like Google have been optimising more and more for the former content, making it harder to find the latter. I don't think that's a good thing at a…

does anyone remember web rings?

i remember web rings. i remember a full circle of sites providing 99% of the same content because it was easier to keep a website updated reusing the same popular content. and since the webring is the #1 source of popular content, it becomes a death torus into total homogeneity.

Re: Does anyone remember websites?

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Try to find more detailed information on very specific topics, however, and you'll discover that search engines like Google have been optimising more and more for the former content, making it harder to find the latter. I don't think that's a good thing at all. This. A thousand times, this. I really feel is the unfortunate consequences of our short attention span and everyone marketing towards an insanely short at…

As someone who grew up with Google and is now trying to get into niche interests, I have basically no idea how to do the real, old fashioned leg work. I still don't know exactly how much of this is Google's fault, because it remains great for providing information on a lot of more broadly accessible subjects.

in the old times there were _a lot_ of search engines, and they even had directories, you could find lots of interesting websites and communities linked between them, no optimization or ads, you'd also use usenet to talk about topics (like today's reddit and digg)

plenty of creators

Re: Does anyone remember websites?

#176
I remember that spending time on a web was actually interesting back then.

Interesting like discovering and learning something new not like browsing shopping sites and FB, Instagram because there is nothing else to do...

Re: Does anyone remember websites?

#177
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is not great for finding stuff. I’ve complained at length about how bad it is for doing research, but recently I’ve also found it’s totally useless for finding things like reviews of products (unless it’s something like the new iPhone). It’s like legitimate reviews are a casualty in the war between Google and clickbait SEO crap.

This is true. The only way I can find product buying advice is: 1. To find a community of enthusiasts and see what they have to say about products in that space. This works pretty well for products that actually have enthusiasts. 2. Go to Amazon and read a product's bad reviews. The good reviews are nearly useless. But, with bad reviews, you have to weigh the number of bad reviews against the product's popularity. If…

Good trick on the #2, reading the negative reviews. Of course, now that you've mentioned it here - soon enough that'll be gamed, too.

Re: Does anyone remember websites?

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a subscription to Consumer Reports and have been happy with the two purchases I made on their recommendation (headphones in the $100 range, and a new food processor). Do you consider them compromised? It's actually just about time to renew my subscription and i've been wondering whether I should. I've also used your strategy of reading the bad reviews on Amazon!

Consumer Reports is top nouch and very thorough. It can be a bit behind on the far changing stuff like electronics, and it can be pricey. But I've never found them lacking in quality and detail.

Good trick

Re: Does anyone remember websites?

#180
post #167

Check out the search engine at http://wiby.me From their about page: Search engines like Google are indispensable, able to find answers to all of your technical questions; but along the way, the fun of web surfing was lost. In the early days of the web, pages were made primarily by hobbyists, academics, and computer savvy people about subjects they were interested in. Later on, the web became saturated with commercia…

I hit "Surprise me" and first site it hits autodownloads a .mid file, that used to work better I 'member.
Post reply on HN