The Quiet Web

Love the notion. Quite recently I was forced to endure an almost 2 month long Internet fast (telco's copper cable was stolen, rural area, lackadaisical response to say the least - DM for a link if you want the story). It was quite fantastic how much more I got done in the quiet of no Twitter, no news, no Reddit, no HN,...

Oh, there were occasions I rued not having access to some of the quiet sites I follow (usually via RSS) and Wikipedia, but mostly it was upside.

But, as the author notes, it can be difficult to find "quiet" websites that meet their (rather stringent) criteria, and it set me to wondering whether there might not be space for a search-engine that only lists sites that eschew Google Fonts and Analytics, FB links, etc.

"While I don’t think there is a definition that universally applies, I’ve found a definition that works relatively well. Exclude any page that has ads. Remove them if they use Google Analytics or Google Fonts. Remove them if they use scripts or trackers. It’s a hard filter that blocks the most popular sites. Forget YouTube, Facebook, Reddit, or Twitter. Forget the major news sites."

That's not a definition that helps us understand the qualities of a quiet web. Sometimes, thinking in metaphors can really hinder our ability to explore all the design space and not just the stuff that the metaphor borrows from.

Anyone interested in building a search engine for such sites? Or is there one I'm not aware of? I would love that!