[enraged_camel]

>>but it doesn't mean it would be a successful product compared to other things currently on the market.

Why are you assuming said website needs to be successful on the market? Maybe it's a personal website or a hobby project.

[mod]

When I starting building websites in ~1998, I looked at what was on the web, it inspired ideas, and I built things.

If I were starting now, my inspiration would possibly be things like: responsive, single-page apps, with ajax, websockets, etc.

I was going everywhere and viewing source and you could basically figure out how everything was made. Now--not so much.

It's not so much 'success' as similarity with popular projects.

[jordanlev]

I guess I meant "the marketplace of ideas". I'd think someone who wants to learn how to build websites in 2017 wants to learn how to build modern websites in 2017.