The Different Internets: An Update

Another reputable old-internet site bites the dust.

Sep 05, 2024

Thursday :: September 5th, 2024 :: Approx. 4 min read

👋 Hi, this is Chris with another issue of The Teardown. In every issue, I cover how we evolve in concert with the technology that enables our day-to-day lives. If you’d like to get emails like this in your inbox every week, hit the subscribe button below.

I posted The Different Internets piece over two years ago on January 26th, 2022. That post detailed why the earlier (late 90s, 2000s) internet changed my life. It stoked my nostalgia for virtual destinations that are long gone. At the time, it seemed like every site might refashion some part of its product with a slice of crypto.

But, the recent farewell post by AnandTech’s Ryan Smith motivated me to remind you all again about what the internet once was. The one that wasn’t so twisted around social media. The one that wasn’t fueled by data and a slave to advertising platforms.

For those of you who don’t know it, AnandTech was one of the best websites to find comprehensive computing hardware reviews. Any time I wanted absolute certainty about some computer-related purchase, I visited AnandTech. It was easy to get lost in the depths of the site for some stretch of time well beyond my original intent.

Unfortunately, AnandTech no longer publishes new reviews as of August 30th, 2024. Editor-In-Chief Ryan Smith explained:

It is with great sadness that I find myself penning the hardest news post I’ve ever needed to write here at AnandTech. After over 27 years of covering the wide – and wild – world of computing hardware, today is AnandTech’s final day of publication.
…
The years have also brought some monumental changes to the world of publishing. AnandTech was hardly the first hardware enthusiast website, nor will we be the last. But we were fortunate to thrive in the past couple of decades, when so many of our peers did not, thanks to a combination of hard work, strategic investments in people and products, even more hard work, and the support of our many friends, colleagues, and readers.
…
Finally, I’d like to end this piece with a comment on the Cable TV-ification of the web. A core belief that Anand and I have held dear for years, and is still on our About page to this day, is AnandTech’s rebuke of sensationalism, link baiting, and the path to shallow 10-o'clock-news reporting. It has been our mission over the past 27 years to inform and educate our readers by providing high-quality content – and while we’re no longer going to be able to fulfill that role, the need for quality, in-depth reporting has not changed. If anything, the need has increased as social media and changing advertising landscapes have made shallow, sensationalistic reporting all the more lucrative.
For all the tech journalists out there right now – or tech journalists to be – I implore you to remain true to yourself, and to your readers' needs. In-depth reporting isn’t always as sexy or as exciting as other avenues, but now, more than ever, it’s necessary to counter sensationalism and cynicism with high-quality reporting and testing that is used to support thoughtful conclusions. To quote Anand: “I don't believe the web needs to be academic reporting or sensationalist garbage - as long as there's a balance, I'm happy.”

In short, AnandTech succumbed to an internet that no longer surfaces in-depth content. Today’s internet is instead tuned to lists, hype, fleeting trends, and as much user data as possible.

The worst of them? Those recipe websites overflowing with Google-optimized textbook explanations and narratives. We just want the recipe and not the “Jump To Recipe” button.

Internet users just don’t care (much) about content from sites like AnandTech, and don’t want to pay to access every site that isn’t subsidized some other way. So, those that can’t keep up with the never-ending battle to optimize for advertising eventually lose their momentum.

A link to the original post is below. Enjoy!