This post aggregates some general thoughts I’ve been having on the state of the Internet. I’ve been missing the authentic personal page. Are those gone, or have they simply become impossible to find? Remember Geocities, Fortunecity, where there other cities?
It appears most of those free web hosts have either disappeared or have adopted a paying model. The only “free” hosting available is that of Internet service providers where you pay for your Internet connection. Maybe the bar has been raised and only people really interested in their own website are paying for the hosting. All others seem to have retreated to Facebook, other social networks and thousands of specialized fora.
It might also explain why articles on SEO, optimizing adverts and making easy money on the Internet in general have become so widespread. People want to get the money they invested back (even if it’s just $5/month).
I’ve dabbled from time to time in SEO, optimizing my website for ads and even a little AdWords buying at one point. While some techniques have brought some temporary increases in visitors, I don’t feel there was any longterm gain in visitor quality. So, for now, I’m back at not caring.
So that brings me to the state of the net in 2009. I’m starting to get bothered when I see one more page that was clearly optimized, keywords stuffed throughout the page, just the right information before the fold and ads placed at the “perfect” location. One page articles spread over 10 pages to increase click counts are amongst my favorite eyesores.
Or maybe I’m just becoming old and think it used to be better (but as usually, it wasn’t, it was just different).