On #404media's most recent episode about "Why Google is Shit Now", the reporters ask the question, can you imagine the internet without Google?
I can remember the internet before Google. It was the 90s, I was in college computer labs. My internet use was strictly hobbiest entertainment because doing schoolwork required actual programs. I only ever used email (rarely) for professors that accepted homework that way. Most didn't.
It was difficult to find things on the internet, so we relied on bulletin boards that collected direct links. If you had a lot of different places you liked to go online and you didn't have a computer of your own (like me in college computer labs), your best bet was to create your own website (I used Geocities) to collect your links into one place. Some people who spent a lot of time collecting and organizing lots of links on one subject/fandom became a resource that other people gravitated towards and contributed their own links to.
What's my point? Did I have a point?
I think Google's held on for a long time, but nothing lasts forever, especially not in tech. We'll find our way through it.
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