Let’s bring back browsing

When the web started one of the best parts about it was the naming of things. To “surf the web” implied fun and adventure and to “browse” implied serendipity. And we seem to have lost that. Let’s go back.

When I discovered the internet it was pretty much just taking off. I didn’t go to university, so I had no means of access from the get-go. I had a modem, a Commodore 64 and access to BBSes. Then I got an email and newsgroup access. And when I started working at a radio station as a newscaster, I had internet access with a browser. That was 1996 or so, and soon I had my own internet access at home. Still with a modem and paid by the minute. Many Americans can’t understand that issue, as local calls were free, but in Europe we got online, surfed a bit and disconnected. Then you checked the browser cache for pictures to keep. It was arduous, expensive but also, and maybe because of that, exciting. It gave you a feeling of taking part in a new world of publishing. And that’s why it became my career.

There were no big search engines, there were a few portals and news sites, but most of the discovery of web sites was word of mouth on mailing lists, IRC, newsgroups and of course links from one site to another. Getting linked to by others was amazing and linking to others showed that you cared and also showed proof that others also cover the things you wrote about. Web rings and banner exchanges were also great tools and I spent a lot of time making that 400×40 pixel GIF less than 10k.

Finding information on the web was a journey, an adventure. And people wrote about the most random things, went down many rabbit-holes and of course also published things nuttier than squirrel droppings. But here’s the thing: for the first time other than fanzines and underground magazines people couldn’t stop you from publishing. And people wrote what they wrote because they were genuinely bonkers, and not sponsored to manipulate elections.

Nowadays the web has taken over the mantle of most in your face medium trying to force you to consume and purchase things. And it “does the research for you” and pushes you into bubbles. Spending time aimlessly browsing for content is touted as inefficient. Operating systems and browsers come with “amazing AI features” that give you summaries of content instead of allowing you to get your own impressions and draw your own conclusions.

Sure, on the surface this seems great, but it feels like we’re pushed into a world of faster and faster consumption without allowing us and our minds to wander.

The journey towards information is important. Humans retain information better they had to put effort in to get. Aimlessly browsing to find things you may not have heard of yet is as important as discovery is exciting.

I love getting lost on Wikipedia, going from one weird fact to another.

I used to love that on YouTube before everyone and their pet wanted to become an influencer and follow formulaic and manipulative patterns to create their content.

I do enjoy Spotify’s Radio and mixes feature that allows me to find music closely related to bands I love and didn’t know about.

Amazon can get in the sea. The start screen of my Fire TV right now shows me an ad for shower gel and all the programs that look exciting are in reality ads for other streaming services. That’s just TV, but less honest about it. Which is annoying as the x-ray feature of the Amazon Prime player is great. It adds IMDB information to every scene and you can look up where you know that actor from and what that song is, that is currently playing. You know, things you browsed for in the past. Some programs even use it as an Easter Egg, for example The Boys. More of that, less of “this is in cinemas now” nonsense.

We need to browse more, find things we haven’t looked for and discard or embrace them. You don’t often go to a clothes shop to buy one special item. It’s fun to try on a few things and maybe find a new style. You don’t go to a book store and buy one special book. You compare, you try, you might see that you missed a new release of an author you liked. You spend time looking around and taking things in. And that can spark creativity. Or, as the Beastie Boys put it:

Let’s be browsers again, let’s embrace the weirdness of the web, a library curated by racoons on drugs. In the newsletter I curate, I have a section called “procrastination corner / weird wide web” where I collect wonderful finds of my browsing. I love that they still exist and I also keep an archive.

So let’s keep looking around for the strange, the overly detailed and the just bonkers web. And – hey why not – start contributing to it. You can publish, nobody is stopping you.