Web sites are the stones, and hyperlinks connect them in a yard. Rubbers look for meaning given not by the surfer routings, but by webmasters' markings, i.e., the text and hyperlinks on the sites they administer. To find the meaningful stories, the rubbers take out their white paper and black crayon, and 'rub' the markings on the stones, and in the yards. Storylines of, say, 'Global Positioning System' are found within a certain set of sites, demarcated by occurrences of links between the sites writing about gps. The links and claims on the sites as narrational elements.
Agency lies first of all with webmasters.
Tracers are currently the best known of the two schools, for their methods fit well into dominant narratives about the web. As the new realm is thought to challenge traditional notions of authorship and control, so surfers 'write' the web and have volition over their own routes. The knowledgeable, free-spirit user determines his course, that is to say, the user has the privileged position and vantage point. The method and technique thus fit well into the notion of the web as jungle. It takes the web as an urban-like environment offering a jumble of signs, doors and alleys, but no clues as to its dead ends and the whereabouts of its treasures.