What is the Torus?

Do you remember the WebRing? In the mid-90s, searching for web content was a bit of a chore and was highly motivated by shared links. The .edu and other academic domains ruled our early internet reading. In fact, so important was the power of .edu that even the early version of Google gave significant weight to .edu resources. Search engine optimisation (SEO) in the late 90s, page 1, step 1: "Infiltrate a .edu domain and link to your website".