I think Links pages are very useful ways to explore the web, as are directories. There are a couple of sites that we purposely don't link (the site owners know who they are and why we won't link to them), but except for them I try to include a link to every rug site I know about, and I always add a link when one is requested.

Do you folks use Links pages much? What features of them do you especially like (or dislike)?

Regards,

Steve Price

I almost always check out a site's links. Every now and then one of them turns out to be way more interesting than the originating site. F'rnstance, I went to high school in Gary, Indiana - a city that scarcely exists anymore, at least not as I knew it. Someone has gone to the trouble to set up a Web site for Horace Mann HS alumns. The site is marginally interesting, but there are a couple links that are pretty damn awesome. One takes you to a site that shows the school from a satellite photo. (The site offers quite a few other satellite photos, too. I found the house I grew up in.) And then there's the link to a site that shows buildings of architectural interest in Gary. Sadly, most of them are derelict, including a Frank Lloyd Wright home that I never knew about. Lastly, there was a link to a vast photo archive maintained at Indiana University Northwest. I've corresponded with the archivist, and my brother and I are going to spend an afternoon pouring through the pictures. Oh, and I found the e-mail address of a teacher who was there when my Mom was teaching. So I put them in touch with each other after 30 years.

Cordially,

-Jerry-

I can't match Jerry's story above but I tried to take Steve's advice and to look at a Turkotek link I had not looked at before.

A little ways down there is one called "Asian Arts." Inside you are offered "Galleries" as one of the choices. Down that list of mostly Far East antique items of varous sorts, one encounters this Macau dealer,

http://www.asianart.com/jewels_of_the_caucasus/index.html

who appears to have some higher quality Caucasian material.

I'm attracted to the seeming quality photos and to the adequate technical information. As some others have noted with other dealers, I'm put off by his failure to quote price. This always makes me feel that the dealer is going to try to estimate what I might be able to pay before indicating what he would sell a piece for. A calculating signal to me.

But this is an interesting site I had not seen before because I had not explored this particular link.

Regards,

R. John Howe

The first thing I did when I got internet access was look up a friend I had not seen for over 20 years. Knowing he had threatended to move out of the US if Reagan was elected president, I was pretty sure he was the one that showed up in Austria. I contacted him by e-mail and it turns out his mother lives close by so he gets out here every couple of years.

The next thing I did was look up rug web sites. Most now have links. As John said, sometimes there is a new one. When my old computer went down and took the link list I had built up into the grave with it, I began relying on the Turkotek link list, as many of the better sites are linked here. There is so much information on the web now that we could spend all day and not see very much of it, so I suppose most people keep their browsing to a few select sites.

The one thing I recently advised a dealer (who is in the process of setting up a web site) is to change the offerings frequently. Many of the sites NEVER change anything and, as a result, no one visits them after a while.

Once in a while I will use Google.com to look up rug sites because it searches several of the search engines simultaneously. There is another search engine that will continue looking for additional "hits" for days and send you an e-mail when it comes up with more. This was good for a specific search such as "Shahsavan Khorjin". I do not remember what the name is because it died with my old computer!

John mentioned prices on web sites. This is an indication that the majority of rug related sites are commercial in content and it is difficult to separate the "Exhibition" function from the selling function.

Searchingly yours,

Patrick Weiler

Filiberto