Did webrings die? An exploratory study

Abstract

Purpose

Developments in web technologies have already provided end‐users with huge amounts of information on the one hand and an increasing number of search tools on the other hand. Webring is one of the oldest tools designed to help searchers surf the Net easier. The purpose of this paper is to determine if webring is still alive or not.

Design/methodology/approach

After providing a historical overview, webring is defined and its advantages and disadvantages are enumerated. Then, an exploratory study is done to determine webrings' survivability.

Findings

Based on the last update of each webring, the research shows that 69.1 per cent of webrings have been updated in the second period of their life. This implies that webrings are growing increasingly, and hence are still alive.

Research limitations/implications

Lack of last time of updating in 199 webrings, having only the year of updating in 102 out of a 191 dated webrings and not retrieving some of the webrings because of filtering policy currently conducted in Iran are the research limitations.

Practical implications

It was not possible to contact ringers for getting more accurate data.

Originality/value

Results of this research can direct researchers to do more studies on webrings from the technical and user viewpoints.

Citation

Alimohammadi, D. (2009), "Did webrings die? An exploratory study", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 26 No. 10, pp. 8-11. https://doi.org/10.1108/07419050911022270