It's just like 1995, all over again

[babbage]

I've just been reminded of how, fundamentally, the web hasn't changed so much in the last ten years. I recently changed my screensaver of choice away from epicycle to webcollage. Webcollage downloads random images from the web and displays them like a collage on the screen. The images are sampled randomly from the web (by doing image searches for dictionary words) and so you get a fair sample of what's out there. So as far as I can see, the web is composed of:

• Pornography
• Pictures of cars
• Navigation buttons
• 'Powered By' logos

I don't think that's changed since about 1995. It's a curious feeling that ten years of 'development' of the web fundamentally hasn't changed its nature much. I suppose the change that's come over the web in this period is that these days the web is principally a medium for communicating with other people (e.g. selling them pornography or cars) rather than just publishing (pictures of your dream car or person).