And there was literally more on the internet. I could search for a book, and get a ton of information on it from a ton of different perspectives. Now I get results page after results page of links to the same copy over and over again, and tons of people trying to sell me something or to trick me into downloading a trojan. At some point, all the search engines decided that they didn't even need more than five or six pages of results (that they silently repeat.) I mean, they gave you the Wikipedia entry and a link to the Goodreads page as the first two results after their ads - what else could you possibly want to read? Are you a terrorist or something?
The only countervailing events were Google's book scanning project, the founding of archive.org, and the growth of Wikipedia. Google Books is a shadow what it was, was under attack, and was largely an AI project. Archive.org is in danger, and had to limit access to 95% of its content; I can't download a book from the 40s that has been out of print since then, and where everybody who was involved with it is dead. Wikipedia is falling apart under the influence of paid editors and people attacking other people through edits to their biographies.
It's getting to the point where it might be better not to be on the web. I don't like it. Even this web 2.0 commenting on everything seems like a pointless outlet for frustrations. And all it does is make various files on you, in dozens or hundreds of hands, grow slowly.
edit: I don't want to diminish how awesome it is to have a good proportion of 17th-19th century nonfiction online. It's nuts.
The only countervailing events were Google's book scanning project, the founding of archive.org, and the growth of Wikipedia. Google Books is a shadow what it was, was under attack, and was largely an AI project. Archive.org is in danger, and had to limit access to 95% of its content; I can't download a book from the 40s that has been out of print since then, and where everybody who was involved with it is dead. Wikipedia is falling apart under the influence of paid editors and people attacking other people through edits to their biographies.
It's getting to the point where it might be better not to be on the web. I don't like it. Even this web 2.0 commenting on everything seems like a pointless outlet for frustrations. And all it does is make various files on you, in dozens or hundreds of hands, grow slowly.
edit: I don't want to diminish how awesome it is to have a good proportion of 17th-19th century nonfiction online. It's nuts.