Web rings are navigational tools that reportedly offer Web users a fast, efficient way to find content. Rings are a subject-oriented way to surf the Net without needing to navigate forward and backward to revisit the original search page, as is customary with search engines like Yahoo and AltaVista. Instead, users start at the WebRing site and select from a directory of general topics, including Entertainment, Recreation and Sports, and Society and Culture. From there, WebRing users navigate through their chosen topic, starting with a Web site brought up at random by webring.org . If they search for long enough, users will end up where they started.
Users can also list the next five sites in the ring or simply get a list of all pages in the loop.
Sage Weil, director of technology at WebRing, a nonprofit organization, had a better idea. With the script running, people wouldn't have to constantly edit their page to point to a new site when it was added, and all of the data would be located at a central location, guaranteeing that the ring would never break. Weil succeeded, and WebRing was created. Use of the WebRing system is free for users, as with search engines. WebRing was originally run by a single CGI script on mind.net .