The latest articles on DEV Community by Miles the Maker (@milesmakes). https://dev.to/milesmakes https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F3709780%2Ff9f3f97c-4268-44d7-85bf-d2b4b92a535e.png https://dev.to/milesmakes en Miles the Maker Sat, 14 Mar 2026 08:49:09 +0000 https://dev.to/milesmakes/i-built-a-discovery-site-for-everything-google-and-social-media-overlook-1flo https://dev.to/milesmakes/i-built-a-discovery-site-for-everything-google-and-social-media-overlook-1flo <h1> I built Internet Intro, a portal to the independent web (beta) </h1> <p>I built <strong>Internet Intro</strong> to surface the cool, handmade, experimental corners of the web that search engines and social feeds usually miss.</p> <p>It’s <strong>free to use</strong>, still in <strong>beta</strong>, and focused on <strong>simple discovery</strong> and the kind of browsing that made the early web feel endless.</p> <h2> What you can try right now </h2> <ul> <li> <strong>Search View</strong>: a handpicked search engine for curated sites </li> <li> <strong>Feed View</strong>: infinite-scroll discovery feed </li> <li> <strong>Embedded View</strong>: full-page embed with a “stumble” mode and smooth navigation tools </li> <li> <strong>Directory View</strong>: clean grid layout with fast filters </li> <li> <strong>Fine-tune filters</strong>: exclude <strong>AI-generated</strong> sites, <strong>corporate</strong> sites, <strong>signup-required</strong> sites, and more</li> </ul> <h2> How it started </h2> <p>This grew out of my personal link stash and a lot of manual searching.</p> <p>There is <strong>no crawling, scraping, or automation</strong>. I add, tag, and organize entries <strong>by hand</strong>. I currently have <strong>thousands queued</strong>, and I’m working through descriptions and tags as I go.</p> <h2> Status + monetization (quick heads up) </h2> <ul> <li> <strong>Work in progress</strong>: I’m adding sites and fixing bugs every day </li> <li> <strong>Monetization experiment</strong>: I’m testing <strong>locally-hosted affiliate banners</strong> to help cover costs <ul> <li>No external ad network scripts </li> <li>No third-party tracking </li> <li>Still iterating on placement so they don’t hurt the UX</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <h2> Roadmap </h2> <p>Once the core bugs are fixed and the main features stabilize, I plan to add <strong>about 20 new sites per day</strong> (not counting future user submissions).</p> <h2> Link </h2> <p><a href="https://internetintro.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://internetintro.com</a></p> webdev javascript development marketing