Resources for the Personal Web: A Follow-Up Guide

Last month, I wrote about [omg.lol](https://home.omg.lol/referred-by/brennan) on my Medium blog, and something unexpected happened. The response was surprising! [Thousands of reads and a dozen of comments](https://blog.brennan.day/omg-lol-is-the-internet-we-need-right-now-3538199d5dea), and dozens of people signing up with my referral, taking the leap into the independent web. People who had been lurking on the sidelines for years suddenly had their own corner of the Internet.

But with that excitement came questions. *Where else should I look? What other tools exist? How do I find others like me?*

This follow-up is for all of you who read that article and thought, "I'm ready for more." Whether you're a writer exhausted by algorithms dictating your reach, a creator wanting escape from the platform churn, or simply someone who remembers when the Internet felt *fun*, then this guide is your next step.

## The State of Search (Why This Guide is Needed)

Before we dive into resources, we need to talk about why human curation matters more than ever.

[Google search is collapsing.](https://www.impactlab.com/2025/07/19/the-death-of-google-search/) Between 2021 and 2025, websites experienced traffic losses exceeding 60% from organic search, with quality content creators punished while AI-generated spam flourished. Confirmed algorithm updates decreased from 10 annually in 2021-2022 to just 4 in 2025, yet volatility reached record-breaking levels.

By 2025, much of the web has been consolidated into walled gardens, polluted by generative AI producing near-infinite low-quality articles, and [optimized to death by SEO tactics](https://ppc.land/seo-consultant-tracks-googles-shift-from-predictable-to-chaotic/). For news publishers specifically, Google Web Search traffic declined from [51% to 27% between 2023 and 2025](https://ppc.land/news-publishers-lose-half-their-google-search-traffic-in-two-years/).

This is less about nostalgia than it is survival. Search engines fail and AI floods the void with slop. Human curation becomes essential infrastructure. We need directories. We need blogrolls. We need people pointing to other people.

Forget about using LLMs for research. This is about moving toward a more human, less sterilized, boring Internet. Let's explore the tools that make that possible.

## Part One: Sillyblogging with Pika

I'm going to focus this guide for Medium writers and readers, for those who care about the craft of writing. There's a certain expectation when writing on Medium: you're expected to be well-researched, or at the very least, provide value to an audience.

That's important, obviously, but it can be detrimental to your writing if that's the *only* kind of writing you're doing. You end up obsessed with metrics, with what others are lookin