trenchant.org - daily

Yes, it's a stupid article about Microsoft and AOL dominating, and it has a picture of a borg. Yes, and it's in Salon. It's so cliche it's almost ridiculous. Assimilating the Web -

"In fact, the Web today, in this grim summer of 2001 -- seven long years after its first flush of popularity -- faces a paradoxical and perplexing impasse. It's still too anarchic to be made a completely smooth, convenient, ready-for-prime-time experience; but it's also losing the vital ferment of its 'let a hundred flowers bloom' youth to the gray monotony of corporate control.

We're reaping the worst of both worlds, networked chaos and monopolistic consolidation. The least common denominator of individual behavior multiplies, while the least common denominator of mass taste prevails.

In other words, we're screwed."

I don't really agree with that, but it's how I've been feeling about the web lately too.

— June 27, 2001

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