I think pinning all of this on Google is unfair. They're part of it, but Reddit/Twitter/Facebook is every bit as complicit. Honestly, I think most of what's changed is our collective web-usage habits.
In my experience researching ways of building different and better discovery tools, the ice-berg of stuff that you'll virtually never find on Google/Facebook/Reddit/Twitter runs extremely deep, and is often much more interesting.
The platform-oriented web is like a giant shopping mall with some magazines and newspapers sold in-between. News websites are mostly reviewing the "products" sold in the shops. YouTube celebrities are demonstrating their shopping abilities. Sites like Reddit/Twitter are fostering customer discussions whose aim is to determine the "best product".
