Social networks are the hot topics in today's Web trends. The eyes of the media are looking at social networks. The eyes and pens of bloggers are focusing on social networks. It is fashionable to join a social network and connect with online friends. The social networks are more than a vehicle for people passing time. Social networks are already big online business (depends a little bit on how one looks at it) and they are advertising and marketing machines.

Many of the Web directories that were highly popular few years back are disappearing or changing. The hard working small and micro publishers are having a hard time figuring out which directories is safe to submit to and which to avoid. New Web directories are popping up everywhere and many originate from the Web 2.0 concept.

The actual number of existing Web pages is not a known figure, but the number could be at least 25 billion documents and Web pages and perhaps a lot more. Finding the best Web pages and the most relevant ones is not easy when the number of available Web pages is of such volume. That is why we need search engines with different approach in finding and storing Web pages and documents. The next Web site we mention takes a different approach in search.

We are free advertising enthusiasts, but that does not mean we want everything free. We believe free advertising online must continue to prevent the Web from becoming the marketplace of only the largest and richest companies. For the small and micro Web publishers getting free advertisements, links, reviews and bookmarks is a matter of survival.

Affiliate marketing and selling on the Web is a clever idea. The idea is so clever that some of the world's most powerful Web companies owe lot of their success to the affiliate-marketing concept. Despite the success, the concept has brought, affiliate selling and marketing is often a thorn in many eyes. The next Web site we mention in this project has a nice affiliate marketing touch.

The changes taking place on the Web affect the way the hard working small and micro Web publishers advertise their Web sites and their businesses. If you fall into the category of being a small and micro Web publisher then now is the time to get excited and embrace the changes new Web services are having on the Web.

The method of tagging links and content is common nowadays. The social networks, social bookmarking services, blogs and blog search engines give users the opportunity to place a tag on their content. The tags in use are many and counted in large numbers, but they are a great way to categorize content and links. The next Web site we mention is all about tags, tag clouds and ads.

Exciting elements of the new Web 2.0 oriented services are interactivity and personalization. The AJAX programmed services are often fun to visit and try out. One click configuration changes, easy submitting of links, tagging, different categorization of Web sites are all features that makes free advertising on the Web more rewarding. The next Web site we mention is fresh and fun and placing a free advertisement or a link there is simply irresistible.

Few years back classified advertising was popular and probably still is very popular and some of the free classified advertising services are thriving while other have fallen victims for ad spammers and endless submissions of repetitive advertisements.

Browsing directories of Web sites are one of the ways to find interesting Web sites or niche Web sites. Once blogs became mainstream on the Web's landscape similar Web services were set up to service both blog publishers and users searching for the new type of Web sites.

We are widening up the 1,000 Free Advertising Project. The Web is evolving and we will do so too. We cannot resist changes. We have to adopt.

Similar to what has happened in Web search the blog search sector is changing. Couple of years back new search engines and directories specializing in blogs and RSS feeds were popping up all over the Web. The blog publishing explosion in the recent years is probably making it very difficult for specialized blog directories and search engines to keep up with the industry in links and RSS feeds.

Blog search engines (thankfully) do not all the time mimic the look and feel of general Web search. They represent a dynamic environment; a user generated environment. Using the search box to find blogs is not necessary the primary activity in blog search engines. Finding blogs through collections of links, tags and tag clouds in relation to authors content or headlines is likely to be primary activity.

The Web is global. There is nothing new in that. Blogging is also global and probably there is not a country without a blogger. Some write blogs in their own language, which is great. English is the global language on the Web and the language that connects people together from all over the world. The next Web site we mention has listings of blogs from 227 countries. That is something.

Simplicity is a virtue; at least that is our opinion. Complex features can make great Web services hard to use. Simple features working perfectly can make Web services great. After using some of the blog search engines (not mentioned here), available to us, the Web users, we were pleased to discover RSS feed and blog search engine that offers very good search.

Blog search engines offer usually the primary feature of allowing users to search a database of blogs. The additional features offered by blog search engines are often the elements that make some blog search engines more useful than others do.

Classified advertising has been with us for a very long time and online it has been almost since the beginning of the Web. The recipe for the best classified advertising service hasn't been created yet, but there are many classified advertising services out there worth using. Despite increase in Web based classified advertising services there haven't been any technological breakthroughs lately, but that may be about to change.

Simplicity is a virtue. Web sites, search engines and Web services don't have to be complicated. Doing one thing and doing it precisely and effectively with the Web user in mind is important. We know how search engines of the past went from portal-like design to a one-box searching, without banners, displaying only text-based advertisements combined with the organic results. The next search engine we mention is simple, fast and accepts free URL submissions from hard working small and micro Web publishers.

The world is growing smaller, thanks to the Internet and the Web, and the Web is growing bigger. Once the majority of Web sites were originated from the United States, but today the Web is truly global. Web publishers are likely to seek visitors from all over the world and therefore they have to make sure their Web sites are found other countries. The next search engine we mention in this project has a European flavor.

The journey we started few weeks ago with the Free Advertising Project is going in a different direction than we expected. We expected to bring you a lot of search engines where you could post your listings for free and have your Web site found. The truth is the alternative search engines are a dying breed or so it seems. We keep asking ourselves why and how did this happen and where is the search industry going?