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Yes, it really did used to be like that.
A very long time ago.
Back when the internet wasn’t trash, before the corporate world ruined it.
Oh, web had been full of trash long by 1999. Which is why the ad was worded like it is.
A lot of e-companies, particularly the search engines, around the turn of the millennium, went completely crazy over the “portal” business. Everyone wanted you to make them your home page. News feeds, generous 15 megabytes of email space, web search index last updated 1.5 geological megacycles ago - “well, you see, the web sure is growing rapidly, dunno if anyone can do anything about that in the future, we sure can’t”. Oh and ads. Lots of ads.
So in that light, Google kind of stood out. Actually updated search index, relevant results, no-nonsense user interface.
Yeah, this is the context here. The trend was to have these super dense home pages with all sorts of overwhelming noise, like the Yahoo home page:
Google was remarkable for bucking that trend, and basically still does have that ultra focused home page. It’s not that now Google shows you ads and a weather widget in the search results-- it’s that it’s got the good sense to at least wait until you search for something.
Not to detract from the enshittification-themed comments or anything. Please do carry on, fellows.