Dear Frank, Not to move topics completely, but I think this raises a question of what the Web ought to be for. It should be to enhance human interaction, not the proliferation of search engines. To my mind a discussion forum is a kind of commons, to which people belong and contribute out of modified self-interest -- that is, they are willing to help others on the assumption that when they need something, there are others with a whole other range of expertise available. This mutual aid is much more efficient than a whole stack of Web browsers, and of course more interesting. The secret is (as Elsie would say) is manners, and not trying people's patience too much. I don't think there is anything wrong with out of limits requests or shots-in-the-dark from time to time: that is human efficiency at its best. A sort of creative shuffling and negotitation process. Why work through programmes, search engines and the rest -- which are incredibly frustrating and time consuming -- when you can ask other people using the Web? No Yahoo/Altavista in the world can beat Dick and Susan and Gene and Bert and Frank and whoever else is DT (or so I have learned). There will never be an IBM "Deep Folk"!! Yours, Peter