Note for gen z: When this comic was made, internet search engines were in their infancy. The PageRank algorithm had only recently been invented and Google had been around for less than a year. This made it hard to find websites unless people or other websites suggested them to you. Them sharing websites like this was the normal/expected way to find new cool things on the internet.
Note for gen alpha: People used to navigate to websites for most of their content. Social media was also in its infancy and most people that wanted to post things would host it themselves or rent server space to host it. thugnews.com is doing what would now be done with a social media account.
This comic also takes place nine months before the popping of the dot-com bubble, where venture capitalists were pouring money into any company that was vaguely internet-related. The sites that inspired "thugnews.com" were likely propped up by venture capitalist to pay their server costs.