Why have a links page?

In this age ruled by the search engine, is there any need for a links section anymore? We think so, at least in relation to Taiwan, and here’s why.

First, many important sources of information are in Chinese only, which makes finding them on a search engine when searching in English a challenge. Even though the website will be in Chinese, you can use online translation tools such as http://translate.google.com (this is also an option built into Google’s Chrome browser), and although the translation is dodgy at best, you should be able to get some general information, and in particular the contact information/location.

Second, many sites in Taiwan, and those related to the government in particular, treat the English section of their site as an afterthought. As Heidi would say, “One day you’re in, the next you’re out”. Hence many links into these pages are broken, and forwarding is almost never set up. See how we combat this challenge here.

Third, we use it.