webrings
navigation by neighbour instead of by algorithm. you got where you were going by trusting whoever built the last page.
webrings.shrine
a webring was a list of sites that agreed to point at each other. no ranking, no recommendation engine, no incentive beyond somebody deciding a page was worth linking. you found things sideways.
the closest thing now is somebody posting a links page, which is why this site has one. the random button here is a webring with a single member.