I found this article particularly interesting because I still get plenty of “useless web”. It’s just more difficult to find because those places that are now used to guide people through the web are incentivised towards… …not generic usefulness even, but specifically commercial utility.

I don’t often hear about people going on wiki walks or searching through blogrolls these days. They’re overwhelmed with ads and the content that others want the focus to be upon, all wrapped up with noise and attention sinks. Page weight isn’t just about loading times, it’s about freedom or lack thereof to create meaning and enjoy the fullness of a particular place… …let alone to wander elsewhere.

Of course, ad producers hate wandering attention. It goes against everything they’ve been taught to think matters. However, to hate wandering attention is to hate curiosity, and ultimately it bites even the ad producers to squash it. For it is that same curiousity to look for things other than “the main point” that permits ads to be tolerated on a conceptual level. “We’re paying for this” doesn’t help, from a certain psychological perspective, and if anything makes it worse.

Maybe this is one of the reasons why I didn’t want ads or even the sort of “marketing” I did last decade for my original blog, anywhere near my current site. I like my independence, even if that means a miniscule readership.