Home pages? Can we please have the ⟨blink⟩ tag and the "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" .gif again? Those were of utmost importance!

Okay, serious now. I might be wrong but I think that the whole internet is going full circle, and that what the link describes towards homepages is part of a bigger process, of re-decentralisation. It isn't just about getting news from homepages instead of social media; it's also about how we find content (again, through human recommendation) and who owns it (individuals or small groups, as the ad "industry" is going kaput). It don't think that'll be exactly the same as the 90s/00s internet but similar in spirit.

Well yes, social media sucks. But so does Buzzfeed

Indeed they are, but every single site wants my email and birthday before I can view content now. I don't knock them for trying to make money from ads but I don't need them selling my email address on the side too.

The New Yorker launched a redesigned home page in late 2023, having reached a similar conclusion.

Oh boy let's check it out.

newyorker.com attempts to load js and frames from eight third party domains. Among them;

"conde.digital" -- I am assuming that means conde as in conde nast AKA reddit DNA... and we all know what happens to anything reddit touches.

"condenast.digital" above confirmed. I can almost feel the bile welling in my throat.

"cookielaw.org" - probably to serve cookie consent notices to the plebs who fail to block cookies and other trash.

"doubleclick.net" - known malware

"googletagmanager.com" - so that google can keep track of all their cattle.

And yet all of their articles are perfectly readable in plain HTML formatting, as expected. Not that I would ever spend any time reading articles from whatever this place is.