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Ask HN: Whatever happened to exploring the internet?

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Re: Ask HN: Whatever happened to exploring the internet?

#2
When I am in that type of mood I just head to my huge uni library and randomly pick a book. No unnecessary jabbering from the chimp troupe to deal with, and no wading thro all sorts of scams, advertising, self promotion etc. Todays internet just doesnt match a nice library.

Re: Ask HN: Whatever happened to exploring the internet?

#4
> I seem to have collapsed down to checking 5 to 6 sites.

I check about 20 sites regularly even when I have other interesting things to do.

> Where would I even go to find other sites that might be of interest?

Search engines?

> Whatever happened to the idea of “exploring the Internet”?

It sounds like you would like to find lists of recommended sites that people used to have on their homepages. Most people don't maintain such lists anymore, because 1) nobody reads them 2) they are busy pushing updates and consuming those of other people. Most people find more interesting stuff than they have time to consume already. (Who even needs entertainment industry anymore?)

Also I don't frequent social media, unless HN counts.

Edit: Sometimes when I want anything to read, I search "is java dying" or "why c++". There has always been something new, albeit I do it only two or three times a year.

Re: Ask HN: Whatever happened to exploring the internet?

#8

> I seem to have collapsed down to checking 5 to 6 sites. I check about 20 sites regularly even when I have other interesting things to do. > Where would I even go to find other sites that might be of interest? Search engines? > Whatever happened to the idea of “exploring the Internet”? It sounds like you would like to find lists of recommended sites that people used to have on their homepages. Most people don't main…

> Search engines

Which search engines in 2021 give you real, interesting websites and not SEO gamed content pages that exist only to serve ads?

Re: Ask HN: Whatever happened to exploring the internet?

#9
"Web 2.0" was about monetizing everything you could visit that might be remotely interesting, and separating you from the content with a paywall. We're now looking into "Web 3.0" which will bring even more concepts of monetization, ownership and client-side computation. It's a mixed bag going forwards, but 'exploring the web' died with Web 1.0 as far as I'm concerned.

Re: Ask HN: Whatever happened to exploring the internet?

#10
post #6

https://stumblingon.com/

I was going to say that the death of StumbleUpon really closed off whole portions of the web for me. Their algorithms were really top-notch and the replacement service isn't worth checking out.

Does anyone know why they killed off StumbleUpon? It was probably the best part of 2005-2015 for me.

Edit: I like your link but it seems to lack the interest-targeting algorithms that SU used to have.

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