Reading an interesting thread about the Small Web on HackerNews. They're discussing an article about the growth of independent blogs despite AI content dominance. AI is killing search results, so people are returning to trusted author sources they personally trust.
The Kagi community indexed the entire English-language independent Small Web — and found just over 30,000 blogs (personal blogs without ads, without popups, without AI slop, with live RSS). The thread concludes that the good old web didn't die, but Google buried it by optimizing results for clicks, not usefulness. They recommend the Marginalia search engine, which ignores content popularity.
I definitely believe in segmentation here. Content for everyone won't survive in an overloaded internet, but a specific author for a specific audience will. Because people increasingly subscribe to authors, not topics. Substack's growth proves it.
And no, AI search doesn't solve the problem yet. ChatGPT sends you to a mediocre SEO site for a query like "marketing agency," not to reputable sources. Reasoning models are powerful, but their search results are still poor, and people use them badly. Slop wins here too.
There's a window of a couple of years while there isn't enough slop to completely bury organic content and niche voices can still be heard. In a year or two it'll be significantly harder.
So — take action. Write, publish, build an audience.