So What Is Wrong With The Web? The main crux of the problem is that many of you are not using the web fully. Unless we are greatly mistaken, most of you will typically start surfing at a search engine, search for something and visit one of the sites in the results. When you are done at that site you will probably go straight back to the search engine to look for another site, right???? Let us show you a quick diagram of what your movements look like, this is very simplified but will give you the general idea. Does that look like a web to you??? Or does it look like a star where the search engines have total control over the sites you see??? Let us show you another diagram similar to the one above. This time the blue sites represent the sites on the first or second page of the search engine results. The red sites are sites that are not at the top of the search engine pages. Hmmmm, you don't have access to those red sites because you rely on the first two pages of search engine results all the time. But Aren't The Sites At The Top Of The Search Engine The best Sites? Not necessarily! A search engine is run by a program that tries its best to find you a match for what you are looking for. But it is a PROGRAM and programs use fixed sets of rules. The rules are very complicated, however, they can be worked out by programmers. Did you know if a website owner has enough money they can pay to have their site coded to appear higher up in the search results? So the site at the top of the results for your search terms is not necessarily the best site for the product, information or service you are looking for, it could have just been coded well to get there. Another thing to remember, search engines DO NOT vet websites for quality or content and search engines DO NOT recommend any website, even those at the top of their results. Don't believe us? Write to Google, Yahoo or MSN and ask them if they recommend the sites at the top of their results. You will get a resounding "NO" in their reply. Many web users forget that. An Example (This could apply to any search term) Next week is your sisters birthday and you know she loves hand made earrings. So off you go to your search engine and search for "hand made earrings" and you get 10 results out of millions of sites. Doris, a retired woman from Timbucktoo makes the most beautiful hand made jewelry and it is far from expensive. However, Doris is not a web programmer, nor does she have the hundreds or thousands of dollars to have her website coded to get to the top of the search engine results. She is one of the red sites above, she is on page 43 of the results at your search engine. Who Lost Out Here? Both of you. You did because you missed out on a lovely gift for your sister. Doris did because you never found her site. So Where Else Am I Supposed To Go To Find Web Sites Like This? Well, the "World Wide Web" was given that name originally for a reason, because when it started it was just that, a "Web" of sites all linked together. This is what is changing. How It Used To Work In the past when people visited websites they would maybe start at a search engine and visit their first site. When they had finished at that site they had a few ways of leaving. Go back to the search engine. Click on a banner or an ad. Look in the menu of the site they were on, and click the "Links" button to see a whole range of other sites they could visit. The last of those options used to be very popular and is what formed "The Web". You see, web users not only found the sites at the top of the search engines but other great sites that were not at the top. While Doris's site is not at the top of the search engine we can almost GUARANTEE you she has exchanged links with many other websites. Had you been looking at links pages or directories, as well as search engines, you may have found it. But Very Few Sites Have Link Sections Now Actually that is not true. They still have them, they are just hidden. We won't go too heavily into why they are hidden, as we are working on website owners to counteract that. Suffice it to say that web site owners are just blindly following some very popular, but BAD advice from self proclaimed "experts". We will tell you on the solutions page where to find these links. But right now there is one thing you should know. Websites that hide their links pages are not only harming the web, but depriving you of choice as you leave their site, depriving you of the chance to find the great sites that are not at the top of the search engine results. Just take a look at what happens when you use links directories, AS WELL AS, search engines to find websites. This is what we need to get back to THE WEB. By using links, as well as search engines, you will have MUCH MORE CHOICE. You will find great sites you may never have found at a search engine. You may even find that a website you are visiting recommends another site, something you will never get at a search engine. How many of your favorite sites were recommended to you by a friend??? Where are these link sections? Take a look at the "Solution" page in the navigation on the left to find out.