Has The Internet Become Mundane
from the only-for-the-mundane dept
The NY Times has an article (only for those of you - such as myself - crazy enough to register) looking at the (previously discussed) trend of fewer and fewer sites taking more and more surfing traffic - and suggesting that the web has become mundane and many surfers have lost the thrill of surfing and the fun of serendipitous finds. While the web as a whole had the potential to be a publishing medium for anyone on any subject (and thus easily cutting down a heavily corporate-focused, corporate-owned medium), it has become just another mainstream, mundane source of cleaned up info. I see their point, as plenty of interesting and useful content sites have shut down. However, I think there's still a ton of info out there for those who are looking for it. I think the mistake was that some of these more "out there" sites thought they had a bigger market (or any market at all!) than they actually had. So, they over expanded thinking they'd build a sustainable site or business out of it. When that didn't happen - and the crowds failed to rush to their doors, they gave up publishing. I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing. There are still plenty of useful sites out there - and anyone who is passionate enough about a particular subject can easily use the medium. Since the "noise" has been cut down, maybe some of the more non-mainstream material will get even better.
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Very true
While you are correct that the noise ratio is down, I feel that the lowering of the noise took away from the signal ratio also...I remember when surfing was an adventure, and while there was a truckload of useless vanity ("about me") homepages, there were also a truckload of quirky, sometimes wacky sites run by people like you and me about various themes/subjects/viewpoints etc..
Now these sites are disappearing as it takes more and more effort to make a good site. Its no longer cool to use basic HTML and explore...now its huge multipage sites, chat, discussions etc that take a lot more expertise to do properly, which the little guy hasn't got the time for (for the most part).
I'm not saying they aren't around...just in decline along with the noise.
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