The Indie Internet is here to make the Internet weird again

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The independent web began a few years after the end of GeoCities, which Yahoo shut down in 2009 (at least, in the US – GeoCities Japan managed to survive until 2019). GeoCities was a free web hosting service launched in 1994 that once hosted millions of personal HTML websites, from pop culture shrines to teachers’ pages for their students (and really Everything between them).

When GeoCities disappeared, those sites disappeared with them, most of them lost forever. Some sites have been preserved through GeoCities GalleryBut they are frozen in time like relics in a museum. These sites are still categorized into the old GeoCities “neighborhood” categories they once belonged to, such as Area51 for sci-fi sites or SiliconValley for technology sites. These pages are now filled with broken links and missing images, but they still offer an unfiltered look at the colorful, chaotic web design of the 1990s.

Most Internet users old enough to remember GeoCities took to social media and never looked back. But not everyone. In 2013, a technology developer and entrepreneur Kyle Drakewho also I worked on the GeoCities galleryI set off New citiesthe rebirth of GeoCities as a free web hosting service where anyone can create an HTML website, either by uploading their own site or using Neocities’ browser-based HTML editor.

More than a decade later, Neocitys is at the center of a side of the Internet reviving a different era of the web, where websites didn’t have to be perfect (or even finished) and communities were shaped by people rather than algorithms. This trend has been gaining real momentum over the past couple of years, pushing back on algorithms and artificial intelligence and calling for a more creative personal Internet, which its users have dubbed the Autonomous Web.

New cities are the heart of the independent web, but nikweb It has also gained a following over the past year since its launch in 2024. The two hosting platforms form the main hub of the movement.

Across both, you’ll see a strange mix of old and new, e.g Anti-AI webisodesa 90s style personal site but Titled Hobonichi Techo Chartor a single website Interactive rebuild of Windows 98. Even the demographics of the indie web are evidence of this – the community seems to skew young, largely under 30, so many of the people making these pages may have missed the opportunity to visit the original GeoCities (myself included).

Just as old and new collide on the indie web, so do creativity and rejection. Much of the movement’s popularity in the past few years has been driven by a desire to escape artificial intelligence, destructive scrolling, and social media addiction. The aversion to artificial intelligence on the independent web is particularly intense, to the point that users of Neocitys I created a petition To remove an AI assistant named “Penelope” from Neocities after it was briefly spotted in the site’s code editor. The incident is part of the reason some users are leaving Nekoweb, which announces a ban on AI-powered crawlers and scrapers (although Neocities also pledges not to sell your data for AI training).

The independent web is about reclaiming space on the internet for human-created content. It’s not about creating the best website, the most optimized website, or the most popular website. It’s about creating what you want without caring what the algorithm thinks or worrying about the AI ​​ripping it apart.

As a result, freelance web design is a pretty headache. It’s no surprise that many sites draw clear inspiration from 1990s web design A large number of pixelated GIFs, wacky wallpapersand Animated layouts that sometimes cause motion sickness (in the best way). Some are even shrines to the ancient times of the Internet, like one of my personal favorites, Frutiger Aero Archivean ode to the design language of the early 2000s. All in all, the standalone web couldn’t be more different from the cold, efficient simplicity of modern web design.

Another key difference between freelance and social media is the focus on intentional community. Webisodes are back in full force, along with “web gardens” 250 x 250 pixel square icons effectively display a “sample” of your site that others can include on their sites, like a webisode button. Many sites also have a “Neighbours” section, which is a callback to the “neighborhood” GeoCities sites in which they are organized.

Some communities flock to the indie web more than others, especially artists and the LGBTQ+ community. Artificial intelligence and changes in moderation practices have made social media a more hostile place for people in these communities.

The wave of AI-generated content has made it more difficult for artists to attract attention, and has made posting their artwork on social media a riskier business. Meanwhile, it wasn’t long after Elon Musk bought Twitter/X Remove policy Prevent users from intentionally naming trans people. All things considered, it’s no surprise that these communities are among the largest and most prolific groups on the indie web (you’ll see plenty of webisodes for both Neocities and Nekoweb sites).

What caught my attention, and surprised me the most, was how the independent Internet was created feel. As I wandered through Nekoweb and Neocitys, wandering down mesh rabbit holes, I realized that I felt like I was exploring something I hadn’t connected to the Internet since elementary school.

Instead of the cold apathy I feel while browsing Google or social media, I was genuinely curious about what the next website would hold, what weird design it would have, what funky music or fun facts it would include. Some personal websites had journal entries that made me feel like I was actually getting to know the person who wrote them, a definite change from the snarky Twitter posts and tag-filled Instagram captions I’d become accustomed to.

The indie web has even managed to maintain that age-old fear of stumbling upon a website that is somehow scary or “dangerous,” like the off-putting websites that proliferated on the early Internet. Whenever you land on a page you shout: “Click here to enter!” I couldn’t help but guess whether I should or not.

But if you choose not to click “enter,” there won’t be a panicked pop-up trying to convince you to stay on the site anyway. Pages on the independent web are carefree in a way that the modern Internet is not. No infinite scrolling, no search engine optimization. Many sites don’t even have a mobile version. They just exist, and don’t ask for anything in return from visitors (although you’re often invited to sign the guest book if you want). Many of us probably don’t remember the last time we felt like the Internet asked for nothing in return.

Depending on how social media changes over the next few years, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more people leaving and trying the indie web. Just like vinyl, it will probably never return to its peak like it did in the pre-Yahoo GeoCities days, but I think there will still be a consistent group of people flocking to this side of the internet to escape the modern internet.

that Increase in ageCensorship and AI-generated content could also push more people away from social media and toward a more decentralized, independent internet. It’s becoming harder to regulate and easier to control, meaning you can decide not to include certain content on your site (such as AI-generated images) while at the same time not having a tech company tell you that you’re not allowed to post other types of content.

Additionally, as AI increasingly discourages people from pursuing programming degrees or learning programming, the freelancer web could keep the lights on for a community of people still learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. You can easily get AI code for your HTML website these days, but that defeats the whole point of creating a personal website to begin with. If you want to be on the independent web, you have to code your part of it yourself, like the oddly designed but lovingly crafted GeoCities sites of ages past.