一位创始人押注“老派网络”的赌注正获得回报

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一位创始人押注“老派网络”的赌注正获得回报

内容来源：https://www.theverge.com/tech/938245/past-maps-website-google-zero-ai

内容总结：

放弃AI“金饭碗”，前Meta工程师逆势创办复古地图网站，年入超3000万

2022年，当全球资本疯狂涌入人工智能赛道时，前Meta工程师、连续创业者克雷格·坎贝尔（Craig Campbell）却做了一个令投资人瞠目的决定：拒绝风投开出的“空白支票”，转身创办了一个“老派”网站——Past Maps。如今，这一反其道而行的赌注正在收获丰厚回报。

坎贝尔曾是一名资深技术创始人，2022年刚刚卖掉了自己的电商工具初创公司。彼时AI热潮正盛，前东家的风投们不断游说他“再搞点AI项目，钱不是问题”。但他却选择了一条截然不同的路：开发一个可以叠加现代地图与历史地图的网站。

Past Maps的核心功能是让用户浏览某一区域的历史地图，并通过调节透明度与当代地图进行对比。这些地图源自美国地质调查局等公开数据，坎贝尔则为它们开发了交互工具。最初这只是他个人金属探测爱好的辅助工具——通过定位旧建筑和小径的现代位置寻找考古点。当他在Reddit上分享后，其他爱好者纷纷求购，创业灵感由此而来。

如今，Past Maps的月活跃用户已从最初的2万增长至超过30万。用户群体涵盖家谱研究者、油田老井追踪者以及单纯对本地历史好奇的普通网民。坎贝尔的妻子也参与运营，收入足以支撑二人的生活。但他坦言，如果当年接受风投做AI，收入可能会高得多：“现在我的收入相当于在Meta做中级工程师时（E4级别）的水平。”

令人意外的是，Past Maps的最大流量来源正是谷歌搜索。通过合理标记地图和网页，坎贝尔使网站数据被搜索引擎充分索引。“这些历史数据一直存在，但从未被谷歌有效抓取。当我让它们真正出现在网络上时，流量自然就来了。”他感慨道：“这就是互联网本该有的运作方式——老派互联网精神其实依然活跃，只是存在于这些非常细分的领域。”

与传统老网站依赖广告不同，Past Maps采用订阅制：基础功能免费，深度使用需支付9美元周卡或52美元年费。这使坎贝尔免受广告市场波动和谷歌对广告技术垄断的影响。值得一提的是，美国司法部已于2025年裁定谷歌广告技术构成非法垄断。

虽然避开AI融资潮，坎贝尔却积极拥抱AI工具。他利用部署在笔记本电脑上的本地AI代理模型处理客服：每小时自动扫描Gmail，过滤垃圾邮件，识别需人工处理的问题并草拟回复。过去每天需花1-2小时回复邮件，现在缩短至10分钟。此外，他正用AI开发光学字符识别（OCR）工具，以破解历史地图上弯曲标签、间距不均等识别难题。但他强调：“你必须把人类直觉和创造力融入其中，单纯靠AI提示词远远不够。”

坎贝尔的成功路径看似简单：始于热爱，做出有用之物，分享给同好。但在大模型和AI摘要泛滥的当下，这种“人本主义”的创业模式恰恰成为最坚实的根基。正如他所言：“你可以离开AI金矿，但永远离不开人性的火花。”

中文翻译：

克雷格·坎贝尔放弃了涌入人工智能领域的投资者资金，转而创办了一个——你猜怎么着——网站。一位创始人押注“老派网络”的赌局如何获得回报？2022年，克雷格·坎贝尔拒绝了一张“空白支票”，转而创办了一个网站——而且他的赌局正在获得回报。2022年，克雷格·坎贝尔拒绝了一张“空白支票”，转而创办了一个网站——而且他的赌局正在获得回报。

当然，坎贝尔本可以创办一家人工智能公司。他曾是Meta的工程师，也是一位经验丰富的科技创始人，2022年正当AI热潮如火如荼时，他卖掉了自己的上一家创业公司——一个面向使用Shopify的企业的电商工具。“我之前的风险投资人一直催我，‘再搞点新东西吧，我们给你开空白支票。’”但他另有想法。

人们通常不会急着进入网站行业，毕竟“谷歌零点击”时代即将来临。坎贝尔不为所动，他将自己的服务“Past Maps”发展成了一项可持续的业务。而且他以一种越来越不可能的方式做到了这一点：通过自然搜索流量。

Past Maps名副其实。这个网站让你可以查看特定地区的历史地图，并叠加现代地图。你可以调整透明度，在两个视图之间切换。地图来自美国地质调查局等公开资源，但让用户能以这种方式探索地图的工具是由坎贝尔开发的。他开发这些工具是为了帮助自己的金属探测爱好——通过精确定位旧建筑和小路的现代位置，他就能找到新的搜寻文物地点。他开始在Reddit上与其他金属探测爱好者分享他的地图工具，发现其他人也想获得他创造的东西。就这样，他的最新科技创业项目诞生了。

你不必为了寻找真正的黄金才去享受Past Maps。对于一个只是对周围事物感到好奇的人来说，它本身就是一个宝藏。我曾用它来了解杜瓦米什河在被拉直以方便船只通行之前的形状。坎贝尔的客户使用它有着各种各样的原因——从族谱研究到一位每天使用它来标记旧油井的用户。它是一个研究工具，但也充满纯粹的乐趣。

增长轨迹一直很稳定。坎贝尔表示，流量已从平均每月2万活跃用户增长到第三年的每月超过30万。收入足以维持坎贝尔和他也帮忙打理生意的妻子的生活。但他还是忍不住会想，如果他当初接受了那些风投投资去做人工智能，现在赚的钱会是多少。“我现在赚的钱和我在Facebook当E4工程师（中级工程师）时一样多。”

“这才是网络本该有的运作方式。这其实是老派网络的样子。”

Past Maps最大的流量来源是谷歌搜索结果。坎贝尔很早就发现，当人们寻找他们感兴趣地点的历史信息时——比如祖母去过的教堂，或者某个县的废弃矿场——Past Maps在搜索结果中的排名会上升。

通过以谷歌能理解的方式标记他的地图和网页，他看到了一个良性循环的开始。“当我开始大量输出这些数据，最终让谷歌能够获取并提供给它一个网络位置时，流量就开始增长了。”

“这才是网络本该有的运作方式。这其实是老派网络，”他说，“它依然生机勃勃，但只存在于这些非常非常小的细分领域里。”

一个十到十五年前的老派网络内容发布商，可能主要依靠展示广告来获得大部分收入。你可以免费使用一个Past Maps的免费账户，但要使用更深度的功能，则需要每周9美元的通行证或每年52美元的年费订阅。订阅制让坎贝尔免受波动的营销预算和主要被谷歌控制的广告技术行业的影响——美国司法部在2025年裁定谷歌构成非法垄断。

虽然人工智能可能正在吞噬开放网络，但坎贝尔却完全接受了使用AI工具来帮助运营业务。坎贝尔说，他过去每天要花一两个小时亲自处理每个服务请求，写很长的邮件，而不是发送自动回复和常见问题解答。现在，他让桌面上的一个本地智能体模型来处理一线分类工作。它的预设任务每小时运行一次——前提是他的笔记本电脑是开着的——并且可以访问他的Gmail。它过滤掉垃圾邮件和营销信息，识别出需要他处理的事项，并草拟回复。他说，这将他处理客户服务的时间减少到每天大约10分钟。

“我有时确实会遇到生气的顾客，”坎贝尔说，“如果他们要求退款，它会通过Stripe发起退款和取消订阅请求，完成所有操作，然后给我发提示。”这时，他会查看请求，批准或拒绝，并在点击发送前检查信息。

坎贝尔还在使用AI来帮助构建一个能与旧地图配合使用的OCR（光学字符识别）工具。“制图师都是混蛋，”坎贝尔开玩笑说。历史地图对现有的OCR系统构成了特殊的挑战。标签会沿着河流等地形特征弯曲，使用不统一的间距，有时还会相互堆叠拥挤。坎贝尔发现，现成的工具无法解析这些地图。他发现使用具有推理能力的现代大语言模型效果更好，但这并非简单地提示智能体“对这些地图进行OCR识别”那么简单。

“你仍然需要把人类的火花融入其中。”

相反，他成功地将人类的实验意识与大语言模型的能力结合起来，而不是仅仅依赖工具。“它仍然无法带来那种人类层面的推理火花、创造力，以及将数十年使用这类工具的经验缝合起来的能力，”他说，“你仍然需要把人类的火花融入其中。”

坎贝尔或许放弃了一场所谓的AI淘金热，但这样做，他似乎为在Claude Code和AI摘要时代在线成功经营一门生意创造了秘诀。当你从你热爱的事情开始，做出有用的东西，并与像你一样的人分享，这结果就是一个相当不错的基础。坎贝尔的日常工作与十年前你建立和运营一个网站的方式大相径庭，但让这项业务今天取得成功的要素，却是完全人性化的。

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英文来源：

Craig Campbell walked away from the river of investor money flowing into AI to create, of all things, a website.
How one founder’s bet on ‘the old school web’ is paying off
In 2022, Craig Campbell walked away from a ‘blank check’ to start, of all things, a website. And his bet is paying off.
In 2022, Craig Campbell walked away from a ‘blank check’ to start, of all things, a website. And his bet is paying off.
Sure, Campbell probably could have started an AI company. He’s a former engineer at Meta and an experienced tech founder who in 2022 sold his last venture — an e-commerce tool for businesses that use Shopify — right as the AI boom was booming. “I had my prior VC investors breathing down my neck, going ‘start something else. We’ll write you a blank check.’” He had other ideas.
People generally aren’t rushing to get into the website business, what with the Google Zero event horizon approaching. Campbell was undeterred and has grown his service — Past Maps — into a sustainable business. And he’s managed it in an increasingly unlikely way: via organic search.
Past Maps is true to its name. The site lets you view historical maps of a particular region with a modern-day map overlaid. You can adjust the opacity to fade between the two views. The maps come from publicly available sources like the US Geological Survey, but the tools to allow people to explore them in this way were developed by Campbell. He built them to help inform his metal detection hobby — by pinpointing the modern-day locations of old structures and trails, he’d identify new places to go looking for artifacts. He started sharing his map tooling on Reddit with other metal detection enthusiasts and found that other people wanted to get their hands on what he’d created. With that, his newest tech venture was charted.
You don’t have to be looking for literal gold to enjoy Past Maps. For someone who’s just curious about what’s around them, it’s its own kind of treasure trove. I’ve used it to help grasp things like the shape of the Duwamish River before it was straightened out to help ships move through the waterway. Campbell’s customers use it for a wide range of reasons — from genealogy research to a daily user who maps old oil wells. It’s a research tool, but it’s also just plain fun.
The growth trajectory has been steady. Campbell says traffic has grown from an average of 20,000 active users a month to now over 300,000 a month in year three. The income is good enough to sustain Campbell and his wife, who also helps with the business. But he can’t help but think about what the money might have been like if he had taken those VC investments to work on AI. “I’m making the same as when I was like, an E4 at Facebook, which is like a mid-level engineer.”
“This is how the web is supposed to work. This is actually the old school web.”
Past Maps’ biggest source of traffic is Google Search results. Campbell found early on that Past Maps was rising through the ranks of search when people went looking for historical information about locations of interest to them — a church their grandmother attended, or abandoned mine sites in a particular county.
By tagging his maps and webpages in a way that Google understands, he saw a cycle start to pick up. “As I started exploding out this data and making it finally available to Google and giving it a place on the web, traffic just started to build.”
“This is how the web is supposed to work. This is actually the old school web,” he says. “It is alive and well, but only in these really, really small niches.”
An old school web publisher of 10 or 15 years ago likely would have relied on display advertising for the bulk of their revenue. You can dabble with a free Past Maps account, but going deeper requires a $9 weekly pass or $52 per year for an annual subscription. Subscriptions protect Campbell from the whims of fluctuating marketing budgets and an ad tech industry largely controlled by Google — which the DOJ ruled as an illegal monopoly in 2025.
While AI may be eating the open web alive, Campbell has fully embraced AI tools to help run the business. Campbell says that he used to spend one or two hours a day handling every service request himself, writing lengthy emails rather than sending a form response and an FAQ. Now, he lets a local agent model on his desktop to handle the front-line triage. Its prescheduled task runs once an hour — assuming his laptop is powered on — and has access to his Gmail. It weeds out spam and marketing messages, identifies the things that need his attention, and drafts a response. He says this has cut down his customer service time to about 10 minutes a day.
“I do sometimes have angry customers,” Campbell says. “If they ask me for a refund, it cues up the refund and subscription cancellation request with Stripe. It does the whole thing, then it pings me.” At that point, he looks over the request, approves or denies it, and checks the message before hitting send.
Campbell is also using AI to help build an OCR tool — Optical Character Recognition — that will work with old maps. “Cartographers are assholes,” Campbell jokes. Historical maps are a particular challenge for existing OCR systems. Labels will curve along features like rivers, use inconsistent spacing, and are sometimes crowded in on top of each other. Campbell found that off-the-shelf tools would fail to parse these maps. He found more success with modern LLMs using reasoning, but it’s not a simple matter of prompting an agent to “OCR these maps,” he says.
“You have to still bring that human spark into the mix.”
Instead, he’s found success in combining a human sensibility for experimentation with the LLM’s capabilities, rather than relying solely on the tool. “It still doesn’t bring like that human-level reasoning spark, and creativity, and being able to stitch together decades of using tools like this,” he says. “You have to still bring that human spark into the mix.”
Campbell may have walked away from a supposed AI gold rush, but in doing so it seems he created a recipe for a successful business online in the age of Claude Code and AI summaries. When you start with something you’re passionate about, make something that’s useful, and share it with other people like you, that turns out to be a pretty good foundation. Campbell’s day-to-day looks awfully different from the way you’d build and run a website 10 years ago, but the things that have made the business a success today are thoroughly human.
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