WEB RING/ˈwɛb rɪŋ/

One of the main problems arising from the huge growth in the World Wide Web is how to find what you’re looking for. At one time, search engines were looked to as a good solution to the problem, indexing large numbers of Web pages and allowing searches for key phrases. But now the volume of material out there has grown so great, a Web search can turn up thousands of possible sites, leaving searchers with an almost impossible problem. The Web ring has been invented in the past year or so as a solution. Using browser software, sites with a common theme link themselves together in an endless chain, so that someone stumbling on one site can follow the links to others that will also be of interest. This technique is also valuable in increasing traffic to all the sites in the ring in a co-operative environment. Though so recently invented, dozens of Web rings already exist, on subjects ranging from knitting patterns through Siberian huskies to The Simpsons.

World Wide Words is copyright © Michael Quinion, 1996–2009. All rights reserved. Contact me if you want to reproduce this piece, but first see my advice page, which also has notes about linking. Your comments and corrections are welcome.