LONDON - s4story -- The internet has spent the past two decades getting better at helping people find information. But as artificial intelligence makes it easier than ever to create, organise and surface content, web entrepreneur Miles Noble believes the next challenge is making sure the right things are discovered by the right people.

That challenge is already playing out in specialist digital ecosystems. SquareLocator, Miles' curated discovery platform for the Squarespace community, now lists more than 1,300 products from nearly 80 independent creators, highlighting the scale and diversity of the digital resources competing for attention.

For independent developers, designers and creators, that challenge is becoming particularly acute. Thousands of specialist digital products are being built every day, but many may never be discovered by the people who need them.

Miles believes the internet has inadvertently created a system where being the best product does not necessarily mean being the most visible.

"We spent 20 years optimising the internet to help people find information," says Miles. "We now need to optimise it to help people make choices."

That idea of curation is already familiar to some independent creators. Hannah Shaw, founder of Studio Founded, trained in museum curating before starting a full-service studio and template library; she believes the value of a collection lies not simply in its size, but in the judgement behind what is included.

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"We keep our collection small, with art-directed designs that carry a point of view," says Hannah. "I prefer a curated collection of templates that can form part of a customer's brand for years to come."

For independent creators, that distinction matters. A specialist developer can build an excellent plugin. A designer can create an exceptional template. A small software company can develop a genuinely useful tool.

But none of those things necessarily guarantee discovery. Established businesses can invest heavily in SEO, paid advertising, content marketing and increasingly sophisticated digital campaigns. Smaller creators may have the expertise to build great products but lack the resources to compete for attention.

For Roland van den Hout, co-founder of Squarespace plugin developer SQSMODS, that problem can exist even when a product has already proved its value. "We're living in an attention economy where the real problem isn't access; it's overload. More tools, more choices, and more noise compete for the same limited attention. That makes curation incredibly valuable".

Roland continues, "SquareLocator helps people cut through that noise and find the Squarespace tools worth discovering. For us at SQSMODS, it means being found in the right context, by people already looking for ways to make Squarespace better."

"The internet has become very good at rewarding visibility," says Miles. "But visibility and quality aren't necessarily the same thing."

The problem is particularly acute in specialist ecosystems, where users often seek highly specific solutions. A designer might need a particular Squarespace integration. A business owner might be searching for a specialist template. A developer might be looking for a tool that solves one very specific technical problem.

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The right solution may exist, but finding it can mean searching through pages of results, social media posts, community discussions and individual websites. This is the problem Miles set out to address with SquareLocator. Launched in June 2026, the platform brings together Squarespace templates, plugins, tools, and courses from independent creators into a curated discovery environment.Rather than attempting to become an exhaustive directory, SquareLocator deliberately prioritises selected resources and clear discovery paths. For Miles, the model is less about building a bigger database and more about creating a better filter.

"There's a misconception that discovery means giving people more options," he says. "Sometimes the most useful thing you can do is remove 90 per cent of the options and help someone understand why the remaining 10 per cent are worth looking at."

Miles believes the issue is likely to become more significant as AI lowers the barriers to creating digital products and content. More products could mean more choice, but also more competition for attention. That could create a growing role for platforms that help people distinguish between what is merely visible and what is genuinely valuable.

"AI is going to make it easier to create," says Miles "But if everyone can create more, the ability to discover the right things becomes even more important."

SquareLocator is currently focused on the Squarespace ecosystem, but Miles sees the underlying model as having much wider potential. He believes niche communities could increasingly move away from enormous, indiscriminate directories towards smaller, specialist platforms built around expertise, trust and recommendation.

"The creator economy doesn't necessarily have an ideas problem," he concludes. "It has a discoverability problem. There are incredible people building incredible things. The challenge is making sure the right people can find them."