Yahoo! - A Hierarchical Search System

Imagine! You keep surfing the crystallographic net, and every time you find a useful program or Web page you add the link to your list of bookmarks. As time goes by and you have more and more bookmarks, you find that you have to organize them into directories (folders) in order to keep track. As more time goes by, you even have to introduce subdirectories, say, "Science - Crystallography - X-ray". At some point your friend from the biology department joins you to introduce "Science - Biology". Finally, it becomes more exciting to collect bookmarks than doing Crystallography and Biology, and you and your friend add "Science - Chemistry", "Science - Mathematics", something new every day. Eventually your list becomes a Top 5% link itself, you call yourself Yahoo!, you issue shares on the Stock Market and become a multi-millionaire within a day.

At which point did you drop out? - Why?

Most likely you will not find answers to these questions on the Internet. But that is not the only disappointment for today. When you go to the Yahoo! Home page and click on Science, you will discover immediately that at least some parts of the story above are pure fiction. The alphabetical list offers "Computer Science", "Courses", and "Earth Sciences" - nothing about Crystallography.

In your desperation you might consider trying your luck by choosing Chemistry, Physics, Biology or Earth Sciences - but stop!

Following the links listed after "Matching Yahoo Sites" could keep you busy for the rest of the day. But do not stay away too long! You certainly do not want to surf without knowing about AltaVista!