Anil Dash waxes poetic (and, in my opinion, accurately) about the Web of yesteryear:

To the credit of today’s social networks, they’ve brought in hundreds of millions of new participants to these networks, and they’ve certainly made a small number of people rich.

But they haven’t shown the web itself the respect and care it deserves, as a medium which has enabled them to succeed. And they’ve now narrowed the possibilites [sic] of the web for an entire generation of users who don’t realize how much more innovative and meaningful their experience could be.

Owning your identity on the Web is so retro.