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Veronika Vilgis

Around two years ago, we wrote a blog article about languages on the web. Dr Daniel Pimienta, a language researcher, reached out to find out more about the data behind that article and how we determine languages on the web: his enthusiasm for language data led to a fantastic collaboration! Daniel has since dug deep in our database, extracting all kinds of insights. Based on his report and recently published research, we’re sharing Daniel’s findings about European minority languages on the internet.

Depending on your global location, you may mostly be presented with content in your own language—thanks to geotracking—and this is certainly true for most dominant languages like English, Spanish, or Mandarin Chinese. But what if you speak a minority language? Can you access digital content in that language? Well, based on Dr. Pimienta’s research, it depends on which minority language you’re looking for.

Previously, we showed that English is the dominant primary language online, with approximately 51% of websites created in English. This prominence is particularly striking when juxtaposed against other major languages: Chinese, for instance, accounted for roughly 10% of websites, despite being the most spoken language worldwide. German followed with 7%, while Spanish and Japanese each comprised about 4% of online content. 

Another approach to measuring languages on websites involves calculating the percentage of languages used across all webpages. This method considers the fact that many websites incorporate multiple languages beyond just their primary one. By focusing on the overall distribution of languages across content, this metric offers a different perspective on the multilingual nature of the web, potentially resulting in a different proportion of language representation.

While the internet offers a platform for countless voices, many languages struggle for representation.

This scarcity is concerning, especially for languages UNESCO classifies as 'endangered', raising concerns about preservation and transmission to future generations. 

GeoTLDs: carving digital niches for local languages

In an effort to promote cultural and linguistic communities online, geographical top-level domains (geoTLDs) were introduced in 2012. These domains aim to provide localized digital identities, fostering a sense of belonging and representation. 

For the present analysis, we focus on 10 European geoTLDs that have a unique language associated with them, beyond just cultural and geographical boundaries. Specifically, the analysis focuses on two aspects: the representation of the primary language as part of the TLD and the prevalence of multilingualism, i.e., whether a website is offered in more than one language.

We see in Figure 1 that .eus, the TLD associated with the Basque Country in Spain, has the highest share of multilingualism. This means that all the websites are offered in more than one language—as you would expect, Spanish and Basque are the most common offering, but not exclusively. Next in line for multilingualism are .gal, representative of Galicia, and .cymru, one of the TLDs for Wales, with 60% and 63% of websites being offered in multiple languages, respectively. On the other end, .frl (associated with Friesland), .irish, and .scot exhibit the lowest share of multilingual websites. 

Next, the analysis investigated the correlation between the geoTLDs and the availability of associated websites in their associated minority languages. The three TLDs with top representation of the language are .cat, .gal, and .cymru, showing 72% of websites offered in Catalan, 66% offered in Galician and 45% offered in Welsh, respectively. In contrast, the .scot domain sees a mere 1% of its websites using Scottish Gaelic. Ultimately, this highlights that the impact of geoTLDs on language promotion is variable, and is likely shaped by the level of community engagement and the presence of supportive policies.

Finally, the research examined how well the TLD is represented geographically. It essentially looked at how the overall size of the TLD represents its people (accounting for population), and represents multilingualism, considering the number of people speaking more than one language as well as the number of people speaking the primary language. The table in Figure 2 summarizes the findings.  Both .eus and .cat perform best in terms of multilingualism and promoting their respective languages but are moderately represented given the number of speakers. In contrast, .corsica is well represented online given its overall (speaker) population, but scores low on multilingualism representation of the Corsu language.

The internet is a living, evolving entity that shapes and is shaped by its users. Linguistic diversity online supports cultural preservation and inclusivity, enabling individuals to access information in their native or new languages. While geoTLDs offer an opportunity toward greater linguistic diversity online, significant differences in the way linguistic diversity is promoted remains. The dominance of a few major languages often sidelines others, creating a more uniform digital environment. Addressing this requires coordinated action: governments can enact policies to support minority languages in digital spaces; developers can build tools that make multilingual content creation easier; and communities themselves can drive change by producing and promoting content in underrepresented languages, ensuring these voices are not lost in the online landscape.

The internet's linguistic landscape is a reflection of our world's diversity and disparities. While English and a handful of other languages dominate, countless others strive for recognition and representation. By acknowledging these imbalances and championing initiatives that promote linguistic inclusivity, we can aspire towards a digital world that truly mirrors the rich tapestry of human language and culture.

This blog post was written in collaboration with Dr. Daniel Pimienta founder of the Observatory of the Linguistic and Cultural Diversity on the Internet (OBDILCI). As the current head of OBDILCI, Dr. Pimienta develops indicators that measure the presence of various languages on the web. His work challenges biases in language data and advocates for multilingualism in digital spaces. For more information on the current study and methods, access the publication here.

Domains

The digital world reflects our global diversity, but not equally—while a few languages dominate online, countless others struggle for representation. GeoTLDs can help! For regions with minority languages, having dedicated spaces online where these languages can be used, protected, and shared, is a celebration of human communication. Read on as we explore the data behind languages on the web, together with Dr. Daniel Pimienta and his research.

How geoTLDs promote European minority languages online

Loura Kruger-Zwart

We've been witnessing a fascinating trend in the digital landscape: the rise of casual mini-games across a wide array of online platforms. This trend isn't just a passing moment: it has truly reshaped how we interact with websites and apps, and it's changing the way companies engage with their users and keep them engaged.

The New York Times: from paper crosswords to mobile Wordle 

One of the most visible and well-known examples of the mini-game ascent comes from the New York Times. NYT has long been known for its iconic crossword puzzles, first published in 1942, which set the stage for daily brain-teasers. Its enduring popularity demonstrates the long-standing appeal of quick, daily mental challenges, and their foray into modern mini-games has catapulted them into the online spotlight. The trend started before the pandemic already—the daily Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee are global favorites—but it was the acquisition of Wordle in 2022 that truly put NYT games on a new scale. This game was unique and the results easy to share, spoiler-free. NYT’s casual game offerings have only continued to grow in popularity since then.

The trend isn't limited to news outlets. Professional networking site LinkedIn has introduced a few casual games that refresh daily, and even e-commerce platforms like bol.com have incorporated games into their apps. The OEC, an economic data platform, has brought in regular visitors with their games like Tradle and Connectrade (homages to NYT’s Wordle and Connections). The spinoffs don’t stop there: Worldle for the geographers-at-heart, Heardle for the more musically inclined, Loldle for the gamers, Waffle for our smartest friends, and Quorlde for the eccentrics among us—just to name a few.

They're quick, tricky enough to feel challenging but not so difficult as to cause frustration, and effortlessly shareable. With usually only one new puzzle per day, the process of completing them provides a sense of downtime without feeling unproductive. Everyone attempts the same puzzle and there are no ‘levels’; the results—your score—can be transformed and emoji-fied to make for spoiler-free comparison among family, friends, or colleagues. This limited availability and global consistency creates a shared experience among players, fostering both a sense of community and a dose of friendly competition.

Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with playing and enjoying mini-games, but the context of their presence raises some questions. The NYT claims these games drive traffic to their platform and provide levity from a heavy news cycle, but they've also created a separate app for their games, which effectively results in less traffic to their site and main platform. This widespread adoption begs the question: where did this trend come from, and where is it going?

From the early days of flash games to the massive gaming industry we see today, playing games on the internet has always been a core part of the online experience.

However, what we're seeing now is different. These new mini-games provide quick dopamine hits, often taking just 30 seconds or two minutes to play. They're designed for short attention spans and busy lifestyles, often integrated into apps we use daily. The rise of mini-games and its corporate encouragement isn't accidental: it's a response to changing user behaviors and platform needs. With overall engagement declining and users spending less time on individual sites (besides the big social media platforms), these games serve as a way to increase user return, retention, and time spent.

But is this trend a solution or part of a broader problem?

A little deep dive into games online: the case of Indonesia

We took to Dataprovider.com’s Search Engine to see what we could find about how games are mentioned online. We can see a general rise in “games” being referred to across the internet, but there’s one trend line in particular that we couldn’t ignore: Indonesian websites and websites based in Indonesia have seen a meteoric rise in the mentions of games online since 2021. In Figure 1, we can see that Indonesia’s line starts rising at the end of 2021 and continues steadily upwards until the end of 2023. Then, from the beginning of 2024 until now, there’s been an exponential growth in “games” mentions that overtakes the numbers of the UK and Canada—even combined. We tested our data for an increase in English-language Indonesian websites, and discovered that no change was present that would account for the rise. No changes in our internal methodologies could explain the changes either, which sent us to the news to investigate. 

Two unique explanations came to our attention; two answers that seemed on opposite sides of the same coin. On one side of the coin, we have to take a look at gambling—an activity that is illegal for both locals and tourists in Indonesia for religious reasons. However, online gambling has become a problem in the country: in lieu of (legal) traditional casinos, the gambling that happens tends to be in the form of mobile apps and sites, where users can play gambling ‘games’ with ‘real stakes.’ These platforms create considerable political and social concern about gambling gamification, and a governmental task force was set up earlier in 2024 to address the issue. For better or worse, this helps explain the prevalence of “games” on the Indonesian internet. 

The other side of the coin paints a much happier picture, giving context to the data we see in Figure 1. It starts with the “Perpres 19/2024”, a presidential regulation and government initiative for supporting Indonesian mobile/video game developers. The Perpres was announced in 2021—aligning with when the orange trend line starts to rise—and more actively enacted in 2024, essentially when the exponential growth begins. With a large and active online (gaming) community in Indonesia, the initiative is intended to keep more gaming revenue in the country by supporting talent development, funding indie game development studios, and more. Some of the most popular games from Indonesian studios are known around the world (Coffee Talk and Coral Island, especially!). From this angle, the increased mention of “games” on local websites can be clearly attributed to this giant boost to Indonesia’s gaming industry. 

Neither of these explanations are the same kind of mini-game as what the NYT offers, but this case tells us plenty about the way people use the internet today: to find games, to play games, and to discuss games in blogs, articles, and comment sections across the world. At the same time, they all add together as a way to keep people and their activities firmly online. 

It appears that (mini-)games are the newest addition to the attention economy. Just as the printers and publishers before them, online platforms are competing for users' limited time, focus, and screen space. The seemingly harmless venture into casual games—especially from news providers—can spur a sense of service dilution, where platforms expand too far beyond their core offerings, just to keep users engaged. 

It risks becoming a symptom of content collapse, a modern phenomenon where all information flattened and given more or less the same importance. For example, it occurs when heavy news is placed alongside clickbait and quizzes, which can lead to a kind of numbing effect: there’s less emotional room to deal with dark themes, and the joy of puzzling is damped by negative events.

As we look to the future, several questions emerge:

Will mini-games become a standard feature across all types of digital platforms?

How will these games evolve to maintain user interest and generate income for their hosts? 

What impact will this trend have on user behavior and expectations?

How will platforms balance their core services with these additional engagement tools?

The rise of mini-games online represents a significant shift in how we interact with digital platforms. In our article on GenAI Transparency, we explored the impact of the ‘time spent’ metric (and how it interests shareholders): it's not hard to imagine that the interest in keeping users on the platform will take precedence over the reason the users are on the platform—as long as money is being made, and the metrics show growth, quantity will remain above quality. 

But that’s the cynical take, and it could just as well be that mini-games will stay casual, just a fun addition and well-deserved source of levity online. They offer benefits in terms of engagement and user retention on the corporate level, and in terms of a brain-break for users, but of course, casual mini-games also raise important questions about the future of online content and user experience. For those of us on the player side of mini-games, it comes down to being intentional and paying attention to the context in which the games are. It’ll be fascinating to watch how they shape the digital landscape in the years to come.

This article is part of the Modern Internet series, where we dive into today's digital culture and the online landscape. Check out Internet Nostalgia for a head start on finding great spaces to hang out online, or read our piece on GenAI Transparency to learn about maintaining the Living Internet. If you’re curious about the importance of entropy to security, take a look at Low-Tech Internet (and enjoy the lava lamps). 

Tech

Crosswords, brain-teasers, puzzles, and more: it’s hardly a surprise to find a mini-game or two, tucked away in news and social media platforms. But what does this mean for how we engage with the modern internet? And why are games so popular on the Indonesian internet, in particular? Take a look at our latest blog for insights about mini-games, modern engagement, and the attention economy.

Mini-games and modern engagement

Despite feeling like the behind-the-scenes web is inaccessible to most, you’ll be pleased to know that the internet is not magic: there’s a reason and explanation for everything, and while technical, it’s not always as complicated as it might seem. One thing that brings the hypercomplex aura of the internet back down to earth is the quirky, low-tech side of what makes it work—there really are some things computers and algorithms just cannot do. 

Let’s consider randomness: as human beings, with complex thought patterns and a penchant for unpredictability, we can be random. We could pick a number between 1 and 1,000 for no reason besides it feeling ‘random,’ and follow that up with another entirely random number, so that even we ourselves don’t know which choice we’ll make next. That said, humans are not flawless randomizers, as we can quickly descend into creating patterns or memorable combinations. Computers, on the other hand, cannot be random—it is genuinely impossible. They can simulate randomness, of course, like an online dice roller or random number generator does, and it can seem more or less random to us as the receiver of information. 

This randomness-aversion also appears in other ways. When was the last time you felt your Spotify playlist was well and truly ‘shuffled’?  While it’s true that the platform’s ‘automix’ features give preference to similar sounding songs and your recent listening history, some songs will never come up because there is often no ‘true shuffle’ on algorithm-based platforms like Spotify. This is called psuedorandomness, and yes, for the most part, it is ‘random enough’ for the purposes we need on the user-end. But the computer will always know what comes next: the sequence of results is always calculated, always predetermined. 

Why is randomness important for security?

For low-stakes things like song play orders or random number generators, the lack of true randomness is not a big deal. As long as it seems random to us as humans, the mission has been accomplished.

The real issue arises when considering (online) security and computer to computer (and other M2M) communication. Much of our online experience is encrypted: consider the padlock in your browser bar, indicating SSL status, or how much time you spend ‘logged in’ on social media, email, or e-commerce sites. And much of our online experience must be encrypted to keep us safe as we share personal data like contact information, photographs, payment details, and other confidential kinds of records. Online security is based on keys, which rely on randomness and undecipherability to ensure unpredictability—if a computer and malicious actor can predict or decipher the key, it cannot be secure. Strong, unique numbers are crucial for this, as they become the secure encryption keys for wifi passwords, SSH and SSL certificates, and more.

Let’s take a look at the data: the Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) in SSL certificates refers to cryptographic hash functions used in the digital signatures (keys) of these certificates. The functions are essential for ensuring data integrity and authenticity in SSL/TLS communications. In essence, generating an SHA hash involves processing the input data—like a prime or truly random number—through a series of mathematical operations—like multiplying by another prime or random number—to produce an output that uniquely, securely represents the original input. Figure 1 shows the four more-used SHA types for .com domains in our database.


So, if humans are not effective randomizers, and computers cannot be random, how does online security work? This is where the low-tech internet shines: it utilizes the true randomness of the outside world and the physical things around us to ‘seed’ randomness. An excellent example of this is IT management services company Cloudflare and their lava lamps. Referring to their lamp wall, cryptographer Nick Sullivan explains that it's the photographing of the lava bubbles, the room’s light ambience, (white) noise levels, and a number of other—completely offline—factors that form the basis for solid internet encryption capabilities. Their branch in London uses a ‘chaotic pendulum,’ and the Singapore office tracks the decay of radioactive isotopes to derive randomness for encryption keys. Digital security companies use multiple sources and layers to introduce randomness in their security.  

The mentioned examples are physical sources of entropy, which means they produce randomness in a physically observable manner. Other sources of entropy are just as useful. Thermal noise can be tracked to harness randomness from the hums and jitters in electronic circuits, and Quantum Random Number Generators (QRNGs) are devices that leverage quantum phenomena, such as the behavior of photons, to produce truly random numbers. When operating systems collect entropy from various sources (like mouse movements, keyboard timings, or system events) this is called Software-Based Randomness, which relates to the randomness that can be generated by human-device interaction. User-generated entropy is also a popular contribution to encryption, as Tom Scott explains: personal computers can use the milliseconds between clicks, or smartphones can use movement and tilt data to generate randomness. 

These methods highlight the importance of both physical and digital randomness in maintaining security protocols across the internet. Each method has both strengths and weaknesses, and it’s often a combination of these techniques that get employed to ensure high-quality randomness. These low-tech solutions solve incredibly high-tech problems, and help us understand how the internet works just a little better. ‘Low-tech’ should not imply that the solutions are simple or effortless, but rather that they are graspable for those outside the industry, too.


Low-tech solutions for high-tech problems

Barcelona, ES: this solar internet project is a solar-powered website and magazine, created by Belgian author Kris de Decker. It focuses on and explores the sustainability of technology, reduction of (power) consumption, and prioritization of low-tech solutions to socially constructed high-tech problems. Its solar base is in Spain, where the good weather helps to keep it online, but the site gives its visitors the heads-up that it may be down when the weather has been bad. Take a look at the website to learn about dithered images, technological sustainability, using history to inform our futures. 

This article is part of the Modern Internet series, where we dive into today's digital culture and the online landscape. Check out Internet Nostalgia, for a head start on finding great spaces to hang out online, or GenAI Transparency to learn about maintaining the Living Internet. Keep an eye out for our upcoming piece on the rise of mini-games where they're least expected, and later, the consequences of digital hoarding.

Everything to do with the internet is entirely technical, complex, and shrouded in esoteric jargon—right? Sometimes it seems like you have to be an expert to understand what’s happening out there. While there are plenty of ultramodern things about the web, the low-tech internet is what helps keep us safe on our digital escapades. Read on and dive into the high-tech (security) problems solved with 'low-tech' solutions.

How the low-tech internet tackles high-tech threats

It’s both clear and inevitable that the internet is changing. The previous installment in our Modern Internet series delved into Internet Nostalgia and what’s changed in the last decade about the way we use the internet. It included some reasons behind these changes and how to recapture a bit of the magic of the ‘old internet,’ but the evolution of the online world is far from over. In just the last few years, mainstream access to and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has increased exponentially. AI—a term often used as a catch-all term for all things black-box and automated, here referring to Large Language Models, text-to-image generators, and machine learning algorithms—has positively influenced workflows as a tool and expanded what many have thought was possible. 

The release of ChatGPT and DALL-E preempted the takeoff of many more generative AI (genAI) tools, including Midjourney and Stable Diffusion for images, and Claude, Gemini, Copilot, or Aria for text. Many software tools have developed their own AIs for different purposes, such as Notion’s generator for longer, shorter, or simplified texts, or even the paraphrasers and summarizers of top-line spellcheckers like Grammarly or LanguageTool. 

But beyond the marvels of AI, including generative technologies, there’s something else sort of sinister happening on the internet. Bots have been an issue on social media for many years, when considering fake followers and accounts spreading propaganda or fake news, but it’s taken what feels like a new form: AI-generated content—both images and texts—shared by what seems like AI-run accounts, being interacted with by other AI-operated ‘users’. This cycle ends up looking like faceless bots creating content for faceless bots, on platforms like Facebook meant specifically for, well, people with faces. Whether the point is engagement-farming or just using sheer volume to drown out other kinds of online content, we’re left asking: what’s actually going on here?

Machine-to-machine (M2M) interactions and technologies are not new: they’ve been used in business contexts for years. Cybersecurity firms like Darktrace use AI to detect AI or other automatically generated emails, blocking them from client servers—while other AI learns this and works around it… before Darktrace figures out the workaround and blocks it… and the cycle continues. Payment terminals are essentially one machine contacting another machine (the bank’s tech) to approve and execute a transaction, and the Internet of Things (IoT) network is almost exclusively machine-to-machine communication. The web traffic from crawlers, the technology with which Google and Dataprovider.com index the internet, is classified as bot traffic, and this is also M2M tech. This is to say that there are many useful things that come out of M2M tech, but what's missing is the point of a bot-run and bot-interacted surface web.

Internet analysts have been grappling with the “Dead Internet Theory,” the idea that the internet is already or soon will be devoid of human interaction in the way we’ve been used to in the last years. Explained here by two Australian tech academics, this theory contends that “many of the accounts that engage with [AI-generated] content also appear to be managed by artificial intelligence agents. This creates a vicious cycle of artificial engagement, one that has no clear agenda and no longer involves humans at all.” The motive here is unclear, and may or may not be malicious. 

But the intention can be transparent too, with financial incentives being a major factor. Previously lively sites, like BuzzFeed, have come under fire for publishing low-effort AI content. From quizzes and listicles to travel guides, the company says “generative AI will replace the majority of static content… [and] lead to new formats that are more gamified, more personalized, and more interactive.” While generative AI can produce many times more results (from brainstorm notes to full-fledged articles) than a human worker can, and for a fraction of the cost, does this matter if people don’t actually want it? If the metric is ‘time-spent,’ as advertisers and stakeholders prefer, then AI-generated content, creating highly personalized and ‘endless’ experiences, is the right choice. 

How AI transparency can help the internet 

There are plenty of great uses for AI and genAI in the world today, from the artistic and entertainment value of creating something with these tools or enjoying the creations of others, to utilizing them to simplify your workflows. AI has become part of our online ecosystem, but the issue arises when we encounter AI, knowingly or unknowingly, where we don’t expect or appreciate it. At its core, the issue is not the existence of AI tools, but the transparency around its use. And just because it can be used doesn't mean it should… So what to do?

Detection and tagging tools are still in their infancy, but are becoming increasingly useful for spotting AI-generated content online. Social media platforms like Vimeo and Instagram have added labels to mark posts made with AI (or at least provide AI info), which creates an avenue for voluntary transparency online. LinkedIn and TikTok are expected to follow suit in the near future. These are directed at visual content, like images and videos, which leaves some questions about text-based content: how can generated written work be detected? This is much trickier, as texts are far less likely to be labeled or obviously genAI influenced. Detection applications are not accurate enough to be reliable yet, so this is still difficult to spot and even more difficult to prove. 

This means knowing your sources. Things are changing faster than we can keep up, but it’s important to recognize and critically view what we see online. Companies like Google and Adobe are already in the process of adding provenance trackers to image-based online content, the feature showing if something was taken with a camera, edited in Photoshop, or made with artificial intelligence. In the meantime, however, there’s a lot to learn about how to spot AI content, and understanding its markers can help us notice, flag, or avoid it. Trace the source of something questionable to determine its reliability, for example by finding the original poster, the artist or author, or other online mentions. And ultimately, we can avoid the online spaces that care less about AI transparency than we do. 

Written content markers: check for signs like repetition, predictability, and oddly consistent sentence length and paragraph structure. For comparison, look up other examples of writing by that author or on that topic, and see how the style and content aligns. There’s no harm in checking claims against other sources, or reaching out to the author for clarity. 

Visual content markers: there are a couple of well-known signs to look out for. Especially with images of people, you might spot hands with too many fingers or feet with too many toes, but the key is to zoom in. Are shapes in the background vague or distorted? Are cars facing the wrong direction on the road? Do lines or outlines start and stop in illogical places? Is the writing actually words, or just a jumble of lines and letters? Besides the brushed glow that genAI images tend to have, look out for things that would never appear in a photograph or video, or that (digital) artists would not purposefully include. 

Quizzes: it’s actually quite entertaining to challenge yourself on your genAI recognition skills. Start with this image quiz and get more insights about spotting AI, then follow with this video test and check your assumptions. There are plenty of quizzes around to help keep you sharp.  

If the ‘Dead Internet’ is where humans are no longer creators and interactors, the Living Internet might be where we actually want to be. At risk of repeating the conclusions of our previous article about Internet Nostalgia, there’s much to be said about the return to an ‘old’ way of using the internet—a return to online communities. User-generated and official spaces are the online environments where writers, artists, and other creators have both the incentive and accountability for sharing living content: this can even include AI-assisted works if the use is transparent or otherwise expected. There is plenty of room for responsible innovation and the avoidance of ‘bionic duckweed’. Let’s create, support, and enjoy the Living Internet together. 

This article is part of the Modern Internet series, where we dive into today's digital culture and the online landscape. Check out part 1, Internet Nostalgia, for a head start on finding great spaces to hang out online, and keep an eye out for our upcoming pieces on low-tech internet solutions and the rise of mini-games where they're least expected.

AI and its generative tools are here to stay, but that doesn’t mean it won’t take some getting used to. Its impacts are already being felt in workflow-enhancing applications and content creation capabilities, but the opacity behind its use remains troubling. What are companies and social media platforms doing to ensure integrity and credibility, and how can we as users stay sharp online? Read on as we discuss the problem of genAI transparency, explore the dead and living internet, and share ways to recognize genAI in the digital wild.

GenAI transparency and the living internet

There’s a conversation going on in cyberspace, on social media and forums, in news columns and opinion pieces, about something called internet nostalgia—a longing for the ‘old internet’ and the way online life used to be. But what are we really missing? Is it the charm of slow connections and bad graphics, or having small digital communities, or just the lack of social media platforms? Is the old internet really gone, or have we just forgotten where to find it? Read on to dive into what internet nostalgia is really about, what the alternatives might be, and how to navigate today’s internet for a nostalgic (and daresay, good) time. 

Things used to be so different, but what’s so good about the old internet?

That’s certainly true, the changes are clear. The internet of the late 1990s and early 2000s had the character of an informal Wild West you could visit now and then, in contrast to the expectation of being online we face now. Not only has access to the internet been vastly expanded, an internet connection has become basically essential. It’s a necessity for many kinds of work, most kinds of entertainment, and, increasingly, for social relationships too. The rise of smartphones has been accompanied by cheap data on the go. This means we no longer have to wait to get home to go online, and we no longer necessarily sit behind a big, navigable screen to browse the internet. 

It makes sense, then, that our association with being online has changed: in the same way that a hobby without balance can become a chore, what used to be more of a down-time activity is now an integral—if not mandatory—part of our days. Regulation of advertising, business, access, and social media has replaced the ‘lawlessness’ of before. We’ve traded in anonymous and ‘purposeless’ web surfing for logged-in and targeted browsing, as we seek convenience, speed, and quick engagement. 

As with most things, there is good in the bad and bad in the good. One of the main differences between the internet then and now is how we get information.

You needed to visit a different website and different types of websites for every single thing you did online. You’d stop at a forum for advice, a business website for contact information, a maps site for directions, find a city guide, organize travel, get recipes, recommendations, games, news—these things rarely overlapped. Blogs were huge, creating communities around certain topics, and there was much less of the ‘corporate’ influence we see now, of companies running websites. Rather, the online sphere felt decentralized and much more like it was just run by individuals or interest groups. Cooking and recipes blogs might be one of the most popular blog-style internet spaces that are still often visited, and, even then, that ‘jump to recipe’ button is a quick click most of the time. While visiting all these sites and surfing around online might’ve been entertaining, getting information was a time-consuming endeavor before many of these functionalities became integrated on a few platforms. With Google Maps, for example, we can now get our maps, recommendations, reviews, and directions all in one place. 

How social media impacts digital lifestyles

It seems we’ve reached the other end of the spectrum, resulting in a new set of frustrations. One of the major complaints from internet-nostalgists is the contemporary centrality of social media. It seems like everything revolves around the big social media platforms that have changed the way we use the internet. Recommendations, discussions, opinions, purchases, entertainment, updates, social connections… does everything happen between Meta, TikTok, and Reddit now? In the earlier days of Facebook and Instagram, most users were also ‘creators,’ posting for their friends and network, whereas it's more likely now that a user simply consumes the endless-scroll of curated content from social media professionals. 

The dependency on legacy social media platforms is changing, however, as users get flooded with ads and grapple with algorithms that prioritize some content over others. Then there’s the issue of disallowed or discouraged content, and the influence of AI and bot-generated engagement. These frustrations send internet visitors looking elsewhere for the enjoyable time they used to have online.

What’s the alternative? How can we enjoy the internet again?

With the many optimizations, improvements, and modern online advents, it seems that people forget that the rest of the internet is still out there—or they don’t know how to find it. 

But, of course, the rest of the internet is still out there! Websites are easier to make than ever with specialized building and hosting platforms, whether the site is visual or text-based. Plenty of people know how or are learning to code, ready to make their own sites. Popular AI tools make this even easier, and more accessible to those who are interested. Essentially, we are not restricted to social media to find interesting and unique content, but rather there truly is space online for everyone and everything they love. 


In July 2024 alone, we counted 161 million active websites in our database. Close to 28.3 million of those are classified as content, blog, or forum websites, which means these sites exist only to inform, connect, and share. They have no obvious commercial focus, and could be the sites that come close to the internet we used to know. 


The point is to emphasize what made the ‘old internet’ entertaining and exciting: we start by bringing the focus back to community and community-generated content. This can take many forms these days, including interest-based newsletters via Substack, group chats in an app like Geneva, or active channels on platforms like Discord, Twitch, or Patreon. 


Besides this active community engagement online, there’s plenty of educational and entertainment value in seeking out the unusual websites of today. These could be passion project sites like this ecological exploration or this creative profile, unusual trackers like this interactive doorbell, or silly mini-sites like this dizzy option. Once you start visiting these delightful little corners of the internet, it’s hard to stop. But where do you find them?

How to navigate the internet for a nostalgic time

Start on the big platforms, then follow the external links of the people or topics you like. Actually go to their websites and poke around.

Search for blogs on a topic you're interested in.

Sign up for newsletters and platforms that support what you’re looking for.

Literally, anywhere: https://random.dataprovider.dev/ (developed in-house, this link that takes you to a new, random site every time you click—and don't worry, all the nasties have been filtered out)

Somewhere useless: https://theuselessweb.com 

Newsletters: https://substack.com/browse/staff-picks  | TIP: Dataprovider.com’s monthly newsletter contains a mini-round up of interesting links every month—subscribe here.

TinyAwards: https://tinyawards.net or their 2023 Roundup

The personal websites of developers & programmers

The internet still has its magic, but we’ve been a little swept away by the glamour and ease of catch-all destinations like search engine snippets and social media platforms. Treat the internet like a library: enter with an open mind (don’t head straight for the ‘new’ shelf), take your time to browse the shelves, open up a book now and then and get a taste of what’s inside, and then, if you like what you see, check out! Instead of letting yourself be served up whatever an algorithm recommends, go out into the World Wide Web and poke around until you find something fun. Don’t forget to then subscribe or check in regularly, and you’ll bring the old internet back to your life.

This article is part of the Modern Internet series, where we dive into today's digital culture and the online landscape. Keep an eye out for our upcoming pieces on GenAI transparency, low-tech internet solutions, and the rise of mini-games where they're least expected. 

Generative AI and the ever-growing reach of social media are among the elements fueling the ‘internet nostalgia’ conversation. Did we really have more fun on the internet 10, 20 years ago? Is that enjoyment a relic of the past, or do we just need to be reminded where to find it? Read our insight to learn more about this nostalgic sentiment and how to reclaim a bit of that online magic.

From slow connections to social media: exploring internet nostalgia

Dataprovider.com

Many of us operate in a very small digital world, only accessing a few websites or apps on a regular basis. But the web is vast and with millions of websites there is much to explore. To give you the chance to break out of your usual digital bubble, we compiled this list of ten websites that are wonderfully unique.

You know the feeling when you can’t see your cursor on the screen and you start frantically moving your mouse into all directions but still can’t see it? Here’s where pointerpointer.com can help. Keeping your cursor still, a random human will point to its location on the screen. 

Sometimes, you need to slow down, take a deep breath and focus on the small things in life. Sit back and relax as you enjoy the serenity of watching grass grow in real-time. In existence since 2005, this website claims to be the most boring in the world.

Ling's Cars is a UK-based car leasing website featuring unique animations and an engaging user experience that is reminiscent of the good old days of the web.

The Passive Aggressive Password Machine helps you come up with a new, creative password. It will give you the prompt that might just trigger you to come up with a memorable, unique and hopefully secure password.

This Man explores the phenomenon of thousands of people around the world claiming to have seen the same unknown man in their dreams. Have you?

Help fish migrate upstream by ringing the fish doorbell. In the centre of the Dutch city of Utrecht there is a boat lock that prevents fish from reaching their destination. You can help by ringing the doorbell every time you see a fish appear on camera, someone will then open the lock to let fish pass through.

7. Is it appropriate to drink a beer right now?

It’s 3:35 pm in the afternoon and you have accomplished all of your daily tasks. You wonder if it’s ok to open a beer at this time of the day, after all it might be a bit early for happy hour. Luckily, there is a website that will tell you exactly when it’s ok and when it’s not ok to pour a pint. Even with rudimentary German language skills, we’re sure you’ll get the message.

A simple website that tests your patience by challenging you to wait until it loads. Or, to trick your coworkers into thinking you can’t work because you are waiting for that important website or program to load.

If the pandemic has taught us anything it is that toilet paper is an important commodity that might quickly become unavailable in times of crisis. In order to know exactly how long your current stash will last or how much you need to buy to be covered for next four weeks use this practical online calculator.

Are you bored of conventional dating apps? Zombie Passions lets you connect with the undead. Who knows, you might just find your perfect zombie match!

We hope you enjoyed browsing through these quirky websites. Perhaps you might now have an idea for your own quirky website or April Fool’s prank. Also, remember to get out of your digital comfort zone every now and then and explore some of the lesser known corners of the web. It’s easy to think the web only consists of the bubble you are operating in but it’s much bigger. Reward yourself every now and then by expanding your (digital) horizon.

Happy April Fool's Day! This year we’ll celebrate by exploring a few entertaining corners of the web, basically websites that might seem like an April Fool’s prank but aren’t. We've compiled a list that hopefully brings a smile to your face, perhaps inspiring a creative project or at least a renewal of your passwords. 

April Fools' Day: Ten quirky websites to explore for a dose of fun

When it comes to food, regional dishes can be a point of pride and identity for communities around the world. These dishes are often deeply rooted in the history, culture and traditions of a particular region. But have you ever wondered where the boundaries of these regions lie? At Dataprovider.com, we capture location information that is referenced on a website, for example, if a restaurant publishes its address on the website, we can determine the country, city or region. This can be different to where the website is hosted or where the creator or owner of that website is based. Using the information on a website, we are able to visualize where a website is located — or perhaps more accurately, where the website content most likely points to. So as we're going to explore regional foods, we are likely to detect a lot of restaurant websites that offer the regional dish on their menu. In this article, we’ll look at several regional dishes: the Weisswurst from Germany, Scotland’s national dish Haggis, the Torta Ahogada, a regional delicacy from Mexico, the Hawaiian noodle soup Saimin and Singapore’s Chilli Crab.  

Germany is famous for its wide variety of sausages, many of which are regionally dependent. One of those is the Bavarian Weisswurst, a beloved traditional dish. It is typically made from minced veal and pork, flavored with parsley, mace, lemon zest and other spices. The sausages are traditionally boiled and served with sweet mustard, pretzels and wheat beer. This culinary tradition is deeply rooted in Bavarian culture and is typically eaten before lunch as part of a traditional “Fruehschoppen”.  

Due to its origin and cultural association, Germans have come up with the term "Weißwurstäquator". The term is a play on words, combining "Weißwurst" (white sausage) with "Äquator" (equator). It humorously suggests that the cultural differences between northern and southern Germany can be as significant as the geographic divide represented by the equator.

Can we identify this boundary on the web? In Figure 1, you can see the geographical density of websites mentioning the term “Weisswurst” or “Weißwurst”. We can clearly see a concentration around southern Germany, particularly Munich. As you move further away from this center, there are fewer websites, but the boundaries are less clear, as one would expect from the concept.

Our next stop is Scotland and the dish is Haggis, the traditional Scottish dish that is made from sheep's offal, including the heart, liver and lungs, mixed with onions, oatmeal, suet, salt and spices, traditionally boiled in the animal's stomach. The dish is typically served with mashed potatoes, mashed turnips and whisky sauce.

The origins of Haggis are somewhat mysterious, with various theories and legends surrounding its creation. Some believe that haggis was actually invented in England, with a cookbook from 1615 containing a recipe for a pudding called "Haggas" that is very similar to Haggis. 

Despite its uncertain origins, Haggis has become an iconic dish in Scottish cuisine, often served at special occasions such as Burns Night, a celebration of the life and works of the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Similar to the Bavarian Weisswurst, Haggis has spread well beyond Scottish borders offline and online. In Figure 2, you can see the density of websites that reference Haggis. There is a clear Haggis belt spanning Glasgow and Edinburgh, but you can find Haggis in all parts of England and some parts of Northern Ireland. In Wales, on the other hand you might have a little bit of trouble, but this may be due to the fact that Haggis is spelled Hagis in the Welsh language and therefore doesn’t show up on some of these websites.

It seems that both the Bavarian Weisswurst and Scottish Haggis have spread well beyond their immediate cultural origin. Next, we’ll travel to Mexico to look at a local dish called “Torta Ahogada”. This delicacy is a sandwich made with birote bread, a type of sourdough bread with a thick, crunchy crust and soft interior. It is typically filled with fried pork and then drowned in a spicy tomato-based sauce. The dish originated in the city of Guadalajara, in the state of Jalisco. One local legend attributes the origin of the Torta Ahogada to an accident when a street vendor dropped a sandwich into salsa. You can taste this “original version” at one of the restaurants called Tortas Ahogadas El Güerito.

People go to great lengths to seek out Tortas Ahogadas in places outside of the region. But according to our data, it’s not that easy. In Figure 3, you can see that, at least on the web, the dish really is quite specific to Guadalajara. You are likely to find it in Mexico City too, but outside of these centers, it might be tricky. 

One thing to notice about the three dishes we discussed above is that outside of their immediate origin region, they can usually be found in the countries’ metropoles, likely reflecting migration patterns from rural to urban areas. 

Another example that nicely reflects these migration patterns is the traditional noodle soup dish, called Saimin from Hawaii. Traditionally, saimin consists of soft wheat egg noodles served in a hot dashi broth, garnished with diced green onions and a thin slice of kamaboko (fish cake). However, modern variations of Saimin may include all kinds of additional toppings such as char siu (barbecued pork), sliced egg, shredded nori, or even sliced spam.

Initially consumed by the working class, Saimin has become a popular dish found in a range of establishments, from fast food chains to upscale restaurants. To experience the flavors of saimin, one can visit local eateries in Hawaii that specialize in this dish. But let’s have a look at where else you can find Saimin. Figure 4 shows that outside of Hawaii you are likely to find it in any of the main metropoles on the US West Coast. The distribution of websites referencing Saimin nicely reflects how a dish may spread. First, it reaches the closest metropoles outside of the region.

But are there any popular local dishes that have spread globally? For our last culinary stop, we are heading to Singapore. The famous Singaporean “Chili crab” is believed to have originated in the 1950s, created by a cook named Cher Yam Tian, who wanted to modify her stir-fried crab recipe. She experimented with adding chili and tomato-based sauce to the dish, resulting in the creation of chili crab as it is known today.

Chili crab has become an iconic dish in Singapore and is often referred to as the country's national seafood dish. Its popularity has spread internationally, as can be seen in Figure 5. The chili crab has made it to Australia, Europe, North America and other parts of Asia. You can even find it in Peru.

Traditional cuisine serves as an expression of cultural identity, preserving heritage and customs as it travels across borders. Emigrants bring their culinary traditions with them in an attempt to keep their culture alive in new places. With the widespread use of the internet and the abundance of web data available, we can now visualize the boundaries of these regional cuisines in fascinating ways. By analyzing the online presence of different dishes and ingredients, we gain insights into the popularity and influence of regional foods. 

Summer is travel time, so let’s embark on a global food journey on the web. Food is not just a means of sustenance; it is a reflection of culture, history, and identity. Regional dishes passed down through generations offer a glimpse into the unique flavors and traditions of different parts of the world. We know many of these regional dishes fall within geographical boundaries but are these boundaries visible on the web? So, grab a fork and join us on this culinary web journey!

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