The modern web is flawed. Ads are everywhere (even for paying customers), making websites completely unusuable, the rise of social media and it´s opaque algorithms that prioritize engagement, outrage and desinformation over valuable content, is resulting in severe consequences for society, like polarization, the erosion of trust and mental health issues, specially among younger generations.

The centralization in a few dominant platforms and the creation of walled gardens has significantly reduced the acessibility and diversity of online content, which once was one of the main pillars of the internet, making it harder for users to discover new voices and ideas, without being trapped in algorithmic echo chambers.

Tracking and surveillance have become the norm, with companies collecting vast amounts of personal data to fuel their advertising engines, often without users informed consent. The users have become the product, their attention commodified and sold to the highest bidder.

The “Ensihitification” of the web is real. Modern web has lost the plot and has completely diverged from it´s original vision of an open, decentralized platform, for sharing information and connecting people.

But it doesn´t have to be that way. The core protocols and technologies that powered the early web are still there. With a modern twist, and some effort, it´s possible to reclaim the web.

What Web 1.0 Got Right

The internet was born in the early 90s, and the first version of the web, often referred to as Web 1.0, was a simple, static, and text-based platform.

Those were simple days. At its core, Web 1.0 was about publishing and sharing of information. Anyone could create a website with basic HTML, upload it via FTP, and be online. It was decentralized, user-driven, and open.

There were no algorithmic feeds or intrusive ads and trackers watching your every move. The web was truly a “web” in its sense. A bunch of independent, personal and interconnected pages, each with its own unique style and perspective.

You could link to anyone, anywhere, and discover content organically. There were were no centralized platforms dictating what you see or how you interact with content.

Web directories and early search engines helped people find new content. No feeds or algorithmic recommendations. Just a simple list of links curated by humans.

Individual creativity and personalization was at the center of everything. People learned just enough HTML or used simple editors to build their online space, making each website truly unique. Even the first platforms that resembled what we today consider social networks like MySpace or LiveJournal had a strong component of personal expression and creativity. Users could customize their profiles, add music, and share their thoughts in a way that felt authentic and personal.

Communities formed naturally around shared interests. Forums, guestbooks, and link pages were the social glue.

The early web was a place of discovery, creativity, and genuine connection. It was built on open standards and protocols that anyone could use, like:

web directories like DMOZ (Open Directory Project) helped people discover content through human curation, not machine ranking. Sites would proudly link to each other with “Webrings,” building small networks of trust and shared interest.

These tools and protocols didn’t require permission, weren’t owned by corporations, and respected user choice by default. They represent the open, interoperable foundation the internet was meant to have.

It was messy, yes. The technology was limited compared with what we have today. sure. But it was personal and authentic. People wrote for the joy of writing, shared for the sake of sharing, and connected because they wanted to.

Where It Went Wrong

The transition to Web 2.0 introduced dynamic content, user-generated platforms, and social media, bringing convenience and interactivity. Coupled with the widespread availability of high-speed internet and advances in technology, like the appearence of smartphones, this shift democratized access to the internet like never before.

The web evolved from a niche space for nerds and hobbyists to a mainstream platform.

However, the globalization of the internet came at a cost. The dramatic increase in users led to rising costs for storage, hosting, and bandwidth, making it challenging for individuals to maintain their smaller websites. While technology became more powerful, it also grew more complex, leaving some behind.

To accommodate millions of users, a degree of centralization became inevitable. The convenience of accessing all content in one place, often for free, naturally led to the rise of big tech and social media platforms.

Initially, these platforms were great! I remember joining Facebook in 2010. It was a space to connect and share content with friends. Thanks to Facebook, I reconnected with people I had lost touch with for years. There were no ads, no pages, and no algorithms. just a chronological feed of updates from friends I cared about.

But as the saying goes, “if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.”

As these platforms gained popularity, infrastructure costs became prohibitive. The emergence of venture capitalists fueled greed and unrealistic growth expectations. To generate revenue without charging users directly, they began monetizing data and attention.

Tracking and ads became the norm, shifting the focus from user experience to engagement metrics.

Chronological feeds were replaced with algorithmic ones, disguised as a way to help users discover new content, but designed to prioritize engagement and maximize time spent on the platform. Personal data became extremely valuable.

The web has became increasingly centralized, with a few dominant players controlling vast amounts of data and content. This led to the rise of walled gardens, where users were trapped in a single ecosystem, unable to easily move their data or connect with others outside that platform.

The early web’s open protocols were replaced by proprietary APIs and closed systems, making it difficult for users to own their data or switch platforms without losing their content and connections.

The rise of social media also led to the erosion of privacy. Users willingly shared personal information, often without understanding the implications. The focus shifted from genuine human connection to superficial interactions, likes, and shares.

The web became a place of outrage, polarization, and disinformation, as algorithms prioritized sensational content over truth and value. The rise of fake news and conspiracy theories has had severe consequences for society, eroding trust in institutions and leading to real-world harm.

Is the future of the web really just a place where we are bombarded with ads, manipulated by algorithms, and tracked by corporations? It doesn’t have to be that way. It´s still possible to reclaim the web.

How To Reclaim the Web

Reviving the spirit of Web 1.0 doesn’t mean abandoning modern tools and all the technological advancements from the last decades that made possible to build things that were unimaginable back then. It´s about reclaiming the core principles that made the early web so special and applying them to today’s context. Reclaiming ownership of our personal data, prioritizing open protocols over closed platforms, fostering open communities instead of walled gardens, and valuing genuine human connection over algorithmic engagement.

The early web was, in many ways, ahead of its time. Many foundational technologies remain relevant today, and while some may be outdated, the core concepts remain.

In the following sections, I will talk in more details about some of the key principles and practices that I consider essential to reclaim the web.

Protocols Over Platforms

Centralized platforms usually trap your data and content in proprietary formats and systems, making it difficult to move your data to another platform or service. This creates a dependency on that platform, making it hard to switch providers or take your content with you.

Instead, we should prioritize open protocols that allow for interoperability and data ownership. This means using standards that anyone can implement, rather than relying on a single company’s ecosystem.

Think about how email works. You can use Gmail, Outlook and many other independent providers or even your own server, and you are able to send and receive messages across all of them. Your data is portable, and you’re not locked into one provider. Gmail can shut down tomorrow, and email will still work.

This is the beauty of open protocols. They allow different systems to communicate with each other, giving users the freedom to choose their tools without losing access to their data or content.

Most of the web, should work in a similar way.

Protocols like ActivityPub make possible to apply a similar approach to social media and content sharing. They enable different platforms to interact, so you can post on one service and have it appear on others, without being locked into a single ecosystem. You can follow people across different platforms (instances), and they can follow you back, regardless of the service you use. This is offen called “Federation” and it´s the basis of Fediverse.

ActivityPub is just one example and probably the most popular, but there are many other open protocols like Nostr or Matrix for messaging, who are built upon similar principles.

Smaller And Focused Platforms, Over Corporate Giants

Platforms like Youtube that have become so big, that´s is almost impossible to compete with them. And it´s not even about the techology or product itself, or even the network effect. it´s the massive scale they operate at. It´s prohibitively expensive to host and stream videos at that scale, that only a few big companies can afford it.

This makes it difficult to think about alternatives, but it´s starts with a wrong idea, that every video in the world should be available in a single place.

What if we split the content into smaller local instances? Or by topics? Or by communities? What if we build smaller, more focused platforms that cater to specific interests or local audiences?

This split into smaller, more focused instances, would make the hosting and streaming costs a bit more manageable.

It has a big drawback and it leads to what I mentioned earlier, about let go of some convenience. It´s a lot easier to just go to a single place and search for what you want.

But with concepts like Federation, Single Sign On, RSS and other open protocols, this drawback can be mitigated. It could even be possible to build a content aggregator, that allows you to discover content across different instances. You know, it´s like that old thing called a “search engine” :)

Video streaming is probably one of the most challenging area to decentralize, as the costs involved storing and streaming large files are very high. There are already some projects like PeerTube, which also leverages the ActivityPub protocol.

But this concept can be applied to everything social media related. Instead of a single big platform, you can have smaller, more focused platforms that cater to specific interests or local audiences, that are connected through open protocols, simplyfying the discovery and interaction between them.

Take ownership of your content

When you write a post, share a photo, or create a video in a centralized platform, you often give up ownership of that content. The platform delete your account at any time, share it with a third party without your consent, use it for AI training, or even shut down entirely, leaving your content inaccessible.

How many times have you go to an Youtube video, only to find it deleted or the channel gone? Or a Facebook post that you can no longer access because the account was suspended? The amount of public content that has been lost over the years is staggering.

The alternative is to own your content. This means hosting it on your own domain, using open standards, and having full control over how it’s shared and accessed.

For example, instead of writing a blog post on Medium or LinkedIn, you can create your own site using simple HTML, or tools like Hugo, Astro, or Eleventy. Static content is usually easy to host for free or at a very low cost, in many platforms like GitHub Pages, Vercel, or Cloudflare Pages.

You can also something Ghost to create a more dynamic site and host it on your own server. This will be a bit more costy, but you will keep full control.

You can share it later on social media platforms for reach, but the original content never leaves your site. This is often referred to as POSSE (Publish on your Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere).

So, what happens if the platform I am hosting my content on goes down? If you are using your own domain, you can easily move your content to another hosting provider or platform without losing your audience or content. If censorship is a concern, you can even host it on a decentralized platform like IPFS or Arweave to ensure your content remains accessible.

Another way to reclaim ownership of your data is to self host your critical services. Instead of relying on third-party providers to run the services you use daily, you can set up your own server and one of the many Open Source alternatives to popular software available, like Nextcloud for file storage (Google Drive Alternative), Matrix for messaging (WhatsApp Alternative) or Immich for photo and video management. (Google Photos Alternative).

I have a full section that lists some good alternatives to popular services below.

Self-hosting gives you full control over your data, privacy, and security. You can choose what software to run, how to configure it, and who has access to it. It also allows you to avoid vendor lock-in and the risks associated with relying on a single provider.

For this, you will require some technical knowledge, but there are many resources available to help you get started.

I have also written a full article about this topic.

Open knowledge sharing over walled gardens

The web was once built on the idea of sharing knowledge and information freely. But today, many useful information is often locked away from the public and out of reach of search engines, hidden behind paywalls or closed platforms and buried further by algorithms.

In the early days, there were personal websites, blogs, forums, and wikis where people could share their knowledge and engage in open discussions, in a way that was accessible to anyone. You could read, learn, and contribute without barriers or even needing an account. The content would be indexed by search engines, making it easy to discover and share.

Personal websites and blogs were replaced in a big part by social media and paywalled platforms like Medium or Substack. Forums were replaced by the likes of Facebook groups or Discord servers. We transitioned from public, open and asynchronous discussions to walled gardens, real-time chats and algorithm-driven feeds that prioritize engagement over real knowledge.

To fight against this trend, we need to make an effort to prioritize open knowledge sharing over walled gardens. I already shared some ways to do this above, like owning your own website or blog. Communities can also play a big role in this. Instead of relying on closed platforms, rediscover the power of forums, mailing lists, and wikis. And decentralize! There are modern tools like Discourse, Flarum, or Lemmy that can help recreate the old forum experience, but for the modern era.

Use protocls like RSS to follow content on your own terms

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a powerful protocol that allows you to subscribe to updates from websites without needing to visit them individually or rely on social media algorithms.

It’s a simple, open standard that lets you aggregate content from multiple sources into a single feed. You can then use an RSS reader to read your feed. Think of it as your own personalized feed of content, where you choose what to follow and how to consume it. No algorithms, no ads, no tracking. just the content you care about.

RSS is one of those examples, how older technologies can still be so relevant today. As a content creator, it´s every easy to implement, as there are many libraries and tools available to generate RSS feeds, for all kinds of publishing platforms.

It can be used not only news sites and blogs, but also podcasts, video channels, and more. You can subscribe to any RSS feed that interests you, and your reader will automatically update with new content.

RSS allows for you to be in control of your content consumption. You can choose which sources to follow, how often to check for updates, and how to organize your feeds. And nothing stops you from building your own algorithm on top of it, if you want to.

There are many RSS readers available, for multiple platforms, like Inoreader or Feedly, You can also self-host your own RSS reader using tools like Tiny Tiny RSS or FreshRSS and use clients like CapyReader or Newsflash to read your feeds.

Privacy first alternatives over Big Tech

Many big tech companies have stopped delivering value to the users and transformed into big tracking and advertising machines, where their main business model is user data collection, not user satisfaction.

Here is a list of some alternatives to popular services that aligns better with the principles of privacy, decentralization, and user autonomy:

This list is not extensive. There are many other alternatives out there, some more polished than others.

It just shows that we have a choice and are by no means limited to what big tech has to offer.

Spread the word

Last but not least, be the change you want to see in the world. Share your knowledge, experiences, and discoveries with others. Write blog posts, create videos, or give talks. contribute to open source projects, and raise awareness about these topics.

Join like minded communities and work together to build a better web.

And a last note for us technies. It´s easy to get distracted by the technical side. And there are some really cool things being built in this space, But remember, it´s not just about the technology. It’s about the people, the communities, and the values we want to promote.

We need to get out there and talk with “real” people. Share the benefits of open protocols, self-hosting, and privacy-first alternatives with your friends, family, and colleagues. Help them understand why it matters.

It doesn´t matter how small it is. If you can convince just a single person to switch a service they use to a better alternative, you are already making a difference. Reach out to your local community and ask how you can help.

Conclusion

The modern web is flawed, but an alternative is possible. By rediscovering the core protocols and technologies that powered the early web and adding a modern touch, we can reclaim the web and build a more open, decentralized, and user-centric platform that respects user autonomy, privacy, and genuine human connection. Like the web was meant to be.

It will take time, effort, and a big shift in mindset from the general public to get there, but it can be done.

Everyone of us can play a part in this. Whether you are a developer, a content creator, or just a regular user, you can help reclaim the web. Together, we can build a better web for everyone.

Further Reading