When google was launched, you'd have some curiosity about any random topic, or a specific question, and google would very likely give you some hobbyist website like is common among these that answers your question and more. The introduction of google was a completely mindblowing demonstration of how big the web already was back when it was a niche thing.

The web is much bigger now but in many ways feels much smaller. Everything is so samey, and there's so much consolidation that you don't really need to leave the top few sites.