What's the coolest thing on the internet?

I remember back in the 90s when the internet seemed to be full of surprises, things that either made you think, opened previously hidden nooks of knowledge or amazed you with their ingenuity. Today, the web seems to be largely a sterile collection of cat videos, one sided news outlets, proprietary social media and of course, porn.

What have you seen in the last year or two that harkened back to the earlier days when meme pool could blow your mind over and over and over again?

Book and performance reviews. Dictionaries of all kinds. Travel resources.

None of these is revolutionary, but they are much more handy and up to date than are print versions.

I don't use them much, but how-to Youtube vids are pretty cool, too.

Sure there are lots of "useful" things but is there anything left that is actually amazing? If not, why?

Me

https://quickdraw.withgoogle.com

That stupid giraffe that refuses to give birth.

http://aiexperiments.withgoogle.com/bird-sounds/view/

The amazingness of the internet was that we had things on the internet that weren't there before. Now it has everything, so it's not so amazing.

It isn't "in the last year or two," but I think that Coursera is pretty darned cool, especially considering how many people use google to look up stuff quickly without getting any real deep knowledge from their web searches. Encouraging people to go more in depth than a google search and making learning more accessible for those who can't afford tuition is awesome.

And for people who actually need the credits or degree, but can't fit classes into their schedule, online classes are way superior to the old fashioned correspondence schools.

The flip side, of course, is predatory and dishonest online schools, Corinthian Colleges for example. And I know a guy who would have had a hard time even getting into a county college, yet was happily accepted by University of Phoenix since all they want is your money.

Conversely, the internet has contributed to a stupid and uneducated population. If it's on the internet, it must be true. People don't care to do actual, verifiable research anymore.

ElizMcCord said:

Conversely, the internet has contributed to a stupid and uneducated population. If it's on the internet, it must be true. People don't care to do actual, verifiable research anymore.

It's enabled them, but they were here long before the internet. I remember running into an old friend from high school in the mid 90's, she was going on about how the slave trade was a myth because there was no way that many people could have been taken out of Africa without emptying the continent. I asked her where the hell she heard this from, she replied "Rush Limbaugh" and started to explain how awesome he was and how much she had learned from listening to his show. Though the internet has made it easier for these idiots to find each other.

It does what TV was long accused of doing but with 1000 times the potency. We sit and stare and surf etc. But its also fantastic. You can learn anything. I've saved $1000s in home repairs by watching DIY videos. There's many other good examples. It's great and terrible at the same time.

FilmCarp.

I'm currently learning conversational Dutch, and brushing up on business math via futurelearn (similar to Coursera). I'm particularly enjoying conversing with friends around the world that I've made last year while studying medieval history, archaeology, music theory and mind science, how medicines work, and antibiotics in the food chain.

A course in Compassionate Care had over 8 thousand students worldwide, which was amazing. A falls prevention course had ten thousand, and confirmed that the knowledge I learnt at a workshop a couple of years ago is best-practice and world-class. A course in nutrition and wellbeing (my first online course like this) had close to 14thousand students by the time we finished.

These are a blessing for insomniacs!

Tom_Reingold said:

The amazingness of the internet was that we had things on the internet that weren't there before. Now it has everything, so it's not so amazing.

This is where I stand with the internet. When I first got online in the late '90s I'd sit down several times each week and just explore, to see whatever I might find. Now that a) I've had continuous access for ~20 years and b) the internet has become completely ubiquitous, I never do that. I look for specific information when I need it, and then otherwise I just continually visit the same 10 or 12 sites (mostly discussion forums like this) over and over and over.

It's similar to how, when we lived in NC and PA, we would come to NYC and explore every little nook and cranny of the city. Now that we live/work here, our trips into the city are, almost without exception, surgical strikes -- train in, do specific pre-planned activity, train out.

You can still discover lots of great things. If you want a little leading, try pinterest, reddit, and stumbleupon. I also like medium.com.

Didn't we change the name to the Interwebs?

Certainly. I'm not saying I can't explore like I once did. I'm saying I don't explore like I once did.

Tom_Reingold said:

You can still discover lots of great things. If you want a little leading, try pinterest, reddit, and stumbleupon. I also like medium.com.