Doc Searls has an interesting post on Search Sports, basically considering the question of what can beat or even really compete with Google. A couple lines in particular to quote:

. . . I don't think we're going to see anything really interesting until we deal with the Net's own directory problem, which is the absence of innate directory services any deeper than DNS.

Until we solve that problem, commercial edge-services like Google's will have to serve as de facto infrastructure.

The iCite net will have iCNS (the iCite Name Service), which is designed to be an innate directory service deeper than DNS.

iCNS could also be called just CNS. It definitely emulates DNS in some ways. It functions at a higher level—in particular, it works on top of domain names and the whole realm of DNS.

But, in connection with iCites, it represents a deeper view than DNS because the iCNS + iCite (directory) listings point to information / content.

The iCNS + iCites directory granularity is simplest pictured as the URI + optional fragment. So, the permalink to Doc's post is an example: http://doc.weblogs.com/2003/06/02#searchSports.

What I see iCites facilitating is matching this granularity of listing with the useful information packaging pattern we see with RSS. In other words, with an iCite, the directory listing to Doc's post could not only return that URI + fragment (including all of the surrounding web page), but literally only that post (e.g., along the lines of what is packaged in Doc's RSS feed).

I will post more about iCites as "Lists and Packages". This is a theme of "what is an iCite".