I recently came across this interesting article that details how the internet is continuing to expand but that the growth of the web is slowing down. More worryingly, research seems to indicate that web diversity is hurting, as most web development—including internet activity as well as new web features, functions, and applications—is increasingly being centered around only a few dominant online platforms.
The article is several years old by now, but it still seems just as current and relevant.
We saw a dramatic consolidation of attention towards a shrinking (but increasingly dominant) group of online organisations. So, while there is still growth in the functions, features and applications offered on the web, the number of entities providing these functions is shrinking.
[…] A decade ago, there was a much greater variety of domains within links posted by users of Reddit, with more than 20 different domains for every 100 random links users posted. Now there are only about five different domains for every 100 links posted.
It appears that the already popular online platforms—such as Google, Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, and so on—are getting even more popular and that they are pushing away other websites and alternatives. The article goes on to highlight that research indicates that between 60 and 70 percent of all activity on social media platforms is focused towards just ten popular domains.
Beyond social media platforms, we also studied linkage patterns across the web, looking at almost 20 billion links over three years. These results reinforced the “rich are getting richer” online.
The authority, influence and visibility of the top 1,000 global websites (as measured by network centrality or PageRank) is growing every month, at the expense of all other sites.
When I grew up, the internet was fairly new and full of new and exciting stuff to discover, unique websites to visit, and diverse services to use. It felt like the web was open, and there was a level playing field where everyone could participate, innovate, and thrive. But these days the web seems to become increasingly unequal, and the gap between the big and successful and the smaller websites and services feels more like a chasm that's impossible to overcome. The web is being divided up among a few increasingly powerful monopolies that will continue to stifle competition and kill the open web as we know it.
And that honestly makes me sad.
