There's a symmetry to things that happened in the mid-aughts as at that time there were some shifts in computing habits as well. For instance I knew a bunch of folks at the time who, instead of typing "www.website.com" into the URL bar, would open up google and type "www.website.com" and then click the top link.

I'd ask why and they'd just shrug, like *obviously* google is the front page for everything on the web.

Your anecdote is spot on and it feels like the people who are doing things that way are channeling similar energy.