Lisa Guernsey thinks the web is boring.
Derek Powazek has a good rebuttal and some counter ideas, and here’s my take.

One of the first things I learned about the net was that the good stuff was not going to be handed to me. I would have to go find it. That really hasn’t changed. There is an embarrassment of riches out there, but you still have to be an intrepid explorer and discover it on your own. Mass media does not work like this, so the difference is hard for some people to understand or accept. When the quality content doesn’t just appear like magic for them, they get bored and go away. I feel sorry for them, ’cause they’re missing out.

“What attracted many people to the Web in the mid-1990’s were the bizarre and idiosyncratic sites that began as private obsessions and swiftly grew into popular attractions: the Coffee Cam, a live image of a coffee maker at the University of Cambridge; the Fish Tank Cam…. The Web was like a chest of toys, and each day brought a new treasure.”

So the mass audience has tired of the carnival freak show? So much the better.

“the rate of growth in new sites and unique visitors has slumped in recent months”

Uh, maybe that has something to do with the economy?

And as for the web not being a frontier…. I think that just depends on the way you look at it. Sure, the freak show has moved off the main drag, but there is so much discussion, creativity, and free education just sitting out there waiting the be taken advantage of that I don’t see how anyone could get tired of it. Instead of passively watching pictures of coffee cans or playing at being voyeurs, now people on the web are interacting with eachother. We aren’t treating it like mass media’s ugly stepsister any more - we’re using it for something entirely different.

Regarding the “It’s like walking down the streets of Tijuana.” commercialism problem - the author isn’t looking in the right places. I *build* ecommerce sites for a living, and I have no problem finding non-commercial or semi-commercial places of interest. But then again, I am *not* your average surfer, so maybe my expierences are atypical.