The Weird Web

In the vast desolation of the modern Web—now controlled entirely by billionaires, venture capitalists, and media conglomerates—there still exist a few noble souls who are keeping alive the spirit of the weird, creative, and human Web of the late nineties and early noughties.

No maps will lead you to the Old Web, but these hyperlinks might light your way:

• Wiby - a search engine for the Old Web.
• BoardReader - a search engine that only searches forum threads.
• Million Short - a search engine that lets you exclude the world’s biggest websites from your search results.
• HrefHunt - a curated collection of creative websites by real humans.
• NeoCities - like GeoCities, but re-imagined for the modern era. Their sites directory is what you want to look at.
• IndieWeb - a community of people building technology that lets you own everything you create, while also being able to participate in Big Tech’s social platforms.
• 🕸💍 - an IndieWeb webring. You want to start by clicking on one of the websites in the directory.
• IndieWeb.xyz - an IndieWeb aggregator.

I’m always looking to add to this list. If you know of a website that belongs here, please get in touch over email or twitter.