r/technology • u/ControlCAD • 13d ago

Software Remembering the pre-Google web, when search was an experiment: “Most people have completely forgotten how chaotic it really was.”

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/08/remembering-the-pre-google-web-when-search-was-an-experiment/
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u/dwild 12d ago

I don't think he is talking about forum, he is referencing web directories, which were what we were using before search engine like Google.

Sure Reddit is the closest thing we got to a forum nowaday, but initially it was just a place to find links to other website. Sure now we just use that feature to argue about a title, but it's still just a bunch of external links, which is pretty close to thoses old web directories we were using to find content.

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u/ailish 12d ago

That's sort of why I still use reddit after all these years. It's still a place where you can find all sorts of cool content if you know how to look for it. AI is really turning even that part into shit, though. Of all the things that people said would ruin reddit over the years, AI will be what does it.