3. Why Is The Web So Boring?

The Web is boring because of two things: technology and economics.

Web design concepts and design and implementation tools are a serious barrier to creative presentation of content. Most editorial websites look like ecommerce storefronts because there's more money to be made in selling web design and implementation tools for ecommerce than for exciting, dynamic editorial content presentation. Ecommerce storefronts have two basic purposes: present merchandise in a straightforward manner and sell it. Editorial aesthetics are pretty near irrelevant.

It's as if video and film editing software allowed you to assemble sequences of images and nothing more. Try making a compelling contemporary video using only the ability to string together bits and pieces of one or more video shoots. No graphics, fades, sound manipulation, adjustment of brightness, contrast, color, hue and all the rest of the things you can do with sophisticated video editing software and hardware.

Limited web design and implementation tools put creative minds to sleep, the result being the little boxes made of ticky-tacky all in a row that most websites have become.

Then there's the issue of bandwidth. To present content in a more interesting way, you definitely need more bandwidth. Even today's small and grainy videos require significant bandwidth to run smoothly. Imagine trying to stream a two minute high definition video to a bunch of computers around the world.

Finally, there is an economic cloud hanging over websites that will only go away when some strong winds start blowing. It's common practice to try to run complex websites with relatively minimal technical and editorial staffing compared to print publications. This isn't an attempt by evil capitalist monsters to fill their pockets with cash by creating a class of overworked, underpaid web slaves. Rather there are some practical reasons for this state of affairs. The prices a website can charge for advertisements are generally quite a bit lower than what a print publication can charge. This is true even when a website has a significantly larger number of readers than a print publication. Research shows that until a reader verification system similar to the one used for print publications is implemented for websites, the rate disparity will continue.