Make the Internet Weird Again
Back when I first started using the Internet (so like, the late 90s), the Internet was an odd place held together by web rings that connected it all together. The sites had flashing backgrounds, dancing hamsters, and random midi music playing from somewhere.
Fortunately, design improved a lot after that. By Web 2.0 we had interactions, slideshows, gradients, rounded corners and shadows (both difficult to build before CSS3), animations, and more. I'd say 2005 to 2015 was a great time for creative websites, but things went down hill from there.
As smartphone usage increased, people realized a Web 2.0 site full of sliders, animations, and SVGs took ages to load on a phone. The slower the site, the worse its ranking was on Google. Designers had clients annoying them with the same questions: "How do I get #1 on Google? How do I get an A rating in Page Insights?"
Designers responded to this my removing everything. Sites became simpler: just text, images, and ads. Color was removed, anything that created an additional resource on the page was removed. What was left were clean, minimalist sites that rested on the laurels of a large, sans-serif font.
From a design perspective, it's very depressing. What happened to creativity? A writer on Wordpress' blog asked the same question: "But where’s the daring? The personality? The unexpected?" Although the writer is specifically talking about Wordpress themes, his thoughts can be applied to the entire state of the Internet currently:
The modern web has gradually shifted from a vibrant tapestry of personal expression to a landscape of identical designs, where millions of websites share not just similar structures, but identical visual language, spacing, and interaction patterns. As we collectively gravitate toward the same “proven” layouts and “conversion-optimized” designs, we’re not just losing visual diversity – we’re ceding control over how we present ourselves to the world. This matters because genuine self-expression online isn’t just about aesthetics – it’s about maintaining spaces where authentic voices can flourish.
As a designer myself, I try to build things that are unique, but it can be a challenge. With Google being the only tool people use to find websites, it makes them the de facto decider of how websites should look and function. And judging by Google's own UI, they lean into clean and simple.
But with the rise of places like Neocities, I'm hoping there will be more "weird" in the future. I sort of cynically roasted those sites in the past for being a pastiche of the '90s, but one thing I do appreciate is the unabashed embrace of the oddness of the Internet. If only we could create the more "modern" version of that. What does "weird" look like in a 2025 context?
What is 2025's version of the glittery space background? That's what I'd like to see. Let's bring back the weird!