# Was the internet better 30 years ago? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 11, 2025, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-internet-better-30-years-ago/1018260 "2025-05-11T18:22:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-internet-better-30-years-ago/1018260/81 "2025-05-15T10:39:10Z")
> [@Tripler](#): > > Not intelligent. Haha.. but I beg to differ on this analysis. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-internet-better-30-years-ago/1018260/82 "2025-05-15T16:18:26Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Its far easier to find information now than it was in the 90s. Yes, but since Google enshittified (“We don’t want you to find information quickly but to spend lots of time with our commercial interests”), the situation has deteriorated. So, “better than the 90’s” isn’t the whole picture. It was far easier to find information 10 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-internet-better-30-years-ago/1018260/83 "2025-05-15T16:41:24Z")
> [@Toxylon](#): > > Yes, but since Google enshittified Side note: Might want to give Kagi a try? It lets you block spam domains to limit the shit. Recent thread: [Tell me about Kagi search](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-kagi-search/1016571) ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-internet-better-30-years-ago/1018260/84 "2025-05-15T16:54:00Z")
I’m shopping for new search engines, thanks for the tip. Spam etc. is one part of the issue, but there are others: for a recent example, I know a certain bullet type is available in at least six different well-known online retailers nationally. Google finds three. Then it proceeds to give search results for retailers literally continents away. Another daily beef is how Google no longer includes the millions of pages of myriad online forum data in their search results, mostly only commercial sites, when the one thing I want most to find when looking into something is how other people have gone about that thing, and I know it has been discussed extensively in online forums for the past 20+ years, and it’s still out there to read. Google has turned all but useless. Rant over. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-internet-better-30-years-ago/1018260/85 "2025-05-15T16:58:19Z")
Someone once told me (with tongue firmly in cheek) that the internet was the new “automobile” and “talking movie”-interesting curiosity, but it will _always_ be a novelty. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-internet-better-30-years-ago/1018260/86 "2025-05-15T22:10:12Z")
When I began as a web designer in 1997, I remember trying to describe what was possible, and not currently possible, with the internet, and mostly the world wide web specifically, to clients. They kept thinking of it as an advertising resource, comparing it to newspaper or magazine ads. But I wanted to tell them it was actually an _information_ resource. People won’t stumble upon your site while flipping pages, they need to be told it’s there first. But once they are there, you need to give them the information they are seeking - what your product or service is, how much it costs, how to get it, phone and location details, reviews, etc. The client still had the responsibility for sending customers to the site, by promoting their url on business cards, in radio ads, on their car. A site existing didn’t immediately make them popular, even if they did come up in the top ten of search results, which they ALL wanted without fail. I explained that a million websites can’t all fit into the top ten. They didn’t listen. Google came along later and made that seem to happen, though. Your site does appear to be able to be in the top ten results, somehow. And now the internet has ended up as an advertising resource after all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-internet-better-30-years-ago/1018260.md?page=4)