Webrings

Without a search engine, the only practical way to get from one place to another in the world wide web is through hyperlinks on websites you already know.

During the early years of the broadly accessible web (the 1990s), people came up with a very simple way to make it easier for people to find websites they like: an informal list of websites that link to each other using "previous" and "next" links, effectively forming a circle (or ring) of websites through hyperlinks. Joining such a webring would usually involve contacting a webmaster who would add you to a list of participating websites. The previous/next links would not be direct, but rather routed through a central webring site managed by the webmaster to avoid fragmentation in case one website in the ring went offline.

For some reason, I really like this concept. It evokes a sort of nostalgia in me – a nostalgia for an independent web, run by people who just want to share their stuff with others. I realise that this was never truly the reality of the web but we've certainly been closer to it at some point in the past compared to these days. These days, search engines are ubiquitous while somehow getting worse every year. Maybe, every once in a while, we should take a step back and reconsider the option of simply letting ourselves get carried by the gentle waves of hyperlinks.

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This blog is part of the hotline webring. To explore, follow the links at the bottom of the home page.

Under every post, there are also some links to posts from a personally curated list of blogs. The selection is regenerated every night using frenring.