The rise of social media and digital networks has been so dizzyingly swift that any cogent appraisal of the aesthetics of the web has been almost impossible to propose. The idea of aesthetics as a non-utilitarian element negating the commercial drive of the web is here major subject and also the global diffusion of Web-related forms. It examines social networks, peer-to-peer networks and our contemporary "remix culture," tracing their cultural precedents and explicating an aesthetics based on digital social exchange, cut-and-paste, the viral dissemination of concepts, the proliferation of digital platforms and other properties of the web.