Since 2000, I've observed the internet shift from free sharing of information to aggressive monetization of every piece of knowledge. So I suspect that is the culprit. If you use the mobile web on the latest iPhone you'll find its unusable without an ad-blocker.
Hm, not entirely true, depending on what you mean with "the internet shifting".
The internet has grown, and the free sharing is still going strong. Have a look at Wikipedia, Hacker News, Arxiv.org.
To be honest, the stuff that was shared freely in 2000 was not all that great, and most of that which was, is still available. Remember that you had to buy a subscription to Encyclopaedia Britannica back then, and to all the academic journals.
Granted, there are some non-free information silos, but generally I'm pretty happy with the procrastination advice on Reddit being surrounded by annoying ads that drive me away.
Google "Roche Ff7 rebirth". I was curious who this character is. In 2000-2012 all the top links would be amazing fan sites and forums describing, discussing, and detailing the character with rich info.
Now it's all AI seo spam LADEN with data mining and ad boat on monolithic sites like Fandom they barely work on the newest iphone.
> In 1994 Britannica debuted the first Internet-based encyclopaedia. Users paid a fee to access the information, which was located at http://www.eb.com
