Where have all the cool sites gone?

In the late 90's and into the 2000's it seemed like the almost every day a friend, colleague or family member would mention some new site they found on the Internet. Whether it was something silly like the Hampster Dance, a scary puzzle, or something helpful to debunk all the various urban legends it seemed like the number of sites were exploding every moment.

With the massive expansion and commercialization of the Internet, new ideas appear to have been overrun by corporate sites. Design has, in many cases, become more important than content. Google, for the most part has stuck to its tried and true minimalist designs. But the rest of the high profile sites seem to be replacing their designs like we change clothes. That's not exactly the wonder of the Internet to me. I think the last new site someone tipped me off to was maybe Zillow.com. I know we still get the occasional viral video that goes around, hits the news sites, etc.

Perhaps the web is dead as a source of innovation? It seems that all the innovation has gone into the various Smartphone App stores. And there's nothing wrong with that at all. But, with over half a million apps in the iOS store and over 200,000 in the Android store, it is awfully hard to find good new apps. And, smartphones are not yet nearly as pervasive as a computer. And even with that many Apps it is extremely rare to hear about a new app from a friend, family member or even a store. There certainly are a lot of updates coming out for the operating systems - and those are good because they bring a lot of improvements to every user.

But, it almost feels like we need a Google for Apps. A search engine that helps you find applications and solutions across all the various platforms. Don't get me wrong, I know this isn't a new problem. There never has been a great way to find applications. Sure, there are reviews and magazines, but you have to almost already be in the eco-system to find things. That's not the accessibility that most people are desperate for.

I suspect that the company that solves this evolving meta problem will find the road ahead paved with gold.