This presentation will highlight the changes in the user experience first as more accurate information retrieval tools became available and next as many more sources of information became reachable through the web. It will argue that the information retrieval problem is no longer a mere matter of precision and recall, but is now compounded by knowing what to search. The proverbial "needle in a haystack" problem is now a "too many haystacks" problem. Various aspects and solutions that have been attempted will be discussed including the practical aspects of business models, intellectual property rights and the needs of users. Differences in the views of the research community and the user community will be addressed. Does the web and the intranet bring more information or more glut? Is there a conspiracy of silence among vendors about the shortcomings of modern tools or is there real value to real users?