The Art of the Alternative: How “Sites Like” Searches Shape the Way We Discover the Web

Have you ever fallen deeply in love with a website, a piece of software, or an online streaming platform, only to have it shut down, hike its subscription fees, or slowly change into something you no longer recognize?

Or perhaps you’re looking for a specific tool—say, a free alternative to Photoshop or an indie-friendly version of Goodreads—and you type those magic words into a search engine: “sites like…”