Britain's a funny old country sometimes. We often take perfectly good things and make them bad.

Some clever chap somewhere will, for example, make the decision to replace a directory enquiries service that worked at least 90 per cent of the time with at least a dozen more confusing and expensive services that seem to get every other number wrong.

And, in a similar act of wanton interference, influential voices are currently discussing possible changes to one of the world's greatest online resources: the BBC's massive website.

Webactive has often sung the BBC website's praises before, with individual sections such as Gardening regularly winning Click It! accolades in our reviews sections and directories.

However, this is only part of the story, and BBC online is far more than just the sum of its parts. It is a sprawling mix of TV, education, news and the internet, put together by hundreds of dedicated people at a cost of nearly £100m, making it by far the most expensive website ever created.

And now it faces the most potentially disastrous makeover since Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen had a crack at the Sistine Chapel.

Given this, we thought that the time was ripe to delve into the vast (and occasionally daunting) BBC site to help point visitors straight to the best bits and discover a few hidden gems along the way.

THE HOME PAGE
Unfortunately, we have to start with the least impressive feature of Auntie Beeb's otherwise extraordinary website, the BBC homepage.

This page alone receives more than nine million visitors per month, mostly heading for the major sections such as News, Sport, TV & Radio, Education or Community, all of which are examined in greater depth below.

The downside of all this variety is that the BBC homepage alone contains 100 links, all jostling for attention and ending up equally ignored. In fact, website design is not always BBC's strongest point, with many sections looking as if they were designed by committee.

For this reason, we will not only guide you through the main highways but pick out some of the more interesting back-roads. See the sections below on Getting Around and Hidden Treasures for some less obvious routes and destinations.

Possibly the most crucial parts of the homepage are the Directory and the Search box (which can be found top-right on the page).

The latter is omnipresent on virtually every single page of the site, allowing you to quickly hunt for specific keywords in the BBC site in general, BBC news stories, or the web at large.

The family-friendly, UK-focused search facility (powered by Google's technology) is one of the best on the net and particularly comes in handy when it is employed to track down something elusive on the Beeb's own behemoth of a site.

NEWS
As you might expect, news and current affairs are among the BBC site's flagship services, and the News section receives the most visitors.

On the day of the December 2003 Istanbul bombings, for instance, the News pages registered more than 2.7 million unique users viewing around 21 million pages between them.

And, although it works closely with other newsrooms, the BBC site has its own team of nearly 400 people, including 270 journalists, generating more than 200 separate stories per day. Different methods of news gathering have evolved for the web.

For example, during last year's incident involving the virus-stricken cruise ship Aurora, an online appeal for information resulted in emailed witness accounts coming straight from the boat, where no 'real' reporter could reach them.

"We started six years ago, and I suppose we were considered a bit geeky at first," explains Pete Clifton, head of BBC News Interactive.

"I'm not naive enough to say we're on the same level as the TV newsroom, but when you're talking about something like breaking news you have to be as good and as fast as any other team. Nothing else will do. So yes, we've established our reputation now."

TV & RADIO
The BBC is first and foremost a broadcaster, and is understandably quick to link much of its content to its TV and radio coverage.

More than 300 TV programs have dedicated web pages and micro-sites all to themselves. So whether it's Doctor Who's 40th anniversary, complete with a brand new Shockwave-animated adventure starring Richard E Grant or an in-depth discussion of your favourite soap opera there's always something to keep the PC-owning couch potato amused when the remote slips out of reach.

If you thought all the best stuff was linked to TV, however, you would be wrong. Radio is looking even further ahead at a new generation of listeners who wouldn't be seen dead hunched over an old AM/FM radio but who would happily tune in on PCs, mobiles or even digital TVs.

"One of the big challenges is that the whole world is going digital and we're trying to get away from the idea of this old, crackly, analogue medium," explains Chris Kimber, head of BBC Radio Interactive.

"Did you know that more than six million people now listen to radio through their digital TV set-top box? It's one of our big successes.

"We're also looking at other web-based ideas. I would hope that digital downloads are something we might offer in the future, but not until safeguards are in place.

"The music industry has seen big changes and is only just beginning to embrace digital downloads. But we are moving in that direction."

SPORT
With the exception of news and financial information, nothing is as time-sensitive as sport, and missing that vital goal, whether it be on Ceefax, Wap or the web, is a sin no true fan forgives lightly.

BBC Sports Interactive is the 100-strong team looking after digital television, mobile messaging and internet activities.

Unlike some other areas of the website, Sport is not confined to equivalent BBC TV coverage. For instance, during last year's Rugby World Cup, the online audience went up from 800,000 users to more than a million, a clear example of the website turning an expensive ITV coup into an easy BBC gain.

"Our purpose is to reach as many licence fee payers as possible," explains Ben Gallop, head of BBC Sports Interactive.

"So, even if the Beeb doesn't have the rights, we still have a role in being there. We also do stuff that the commercial world would never touch. For most broadcasters 2004 is an Olympic year. For us it's a Paralympic year too."

LEARNING
Part of the BBC's remit is to provide a certain amount of educational programming and this area of the Beeb's expertise transfers to the web perfectly.

Learning content is pulled together from a number of sprawling departments, covering everything from Adult Literacy to the Open University to the hugely popular Bite-Size GCSE study guides.

All key stages are covered, as are topics such as Science, Maths, Languages and just about anything you can think of.

Other sections use the BBC's broad platform to cross categories at will. For example, People's War focuses on memories and personal anecdotes from World War II veterans and their families.

Part genealogy resource, part Friends Reunited, the People's War micro-site saw more than 2,500 people registering in the first 10 days, many with true stories to tell.

"As [People's War] grows bigger, it gets more comprehensive and more useful," says Chris Warren, executive editor of Interactive Factual & Learning.

"The quality of material coming through is of a very high order. We've got people who lived through the war, but also the next generation interested in their own family history. It's fascinating."

It's worth pointing out that Learning is one of the real strengths of the BBC. Other broadcasters might do News or Sport, but very few plough millions into educating their audience.

In fact, over the next five years, the Beeb is investing more than £150m in developing a new Digital Curriculum for Schools. Who else would even consider it, let alone have the resources and expertise to pull it off?

COMMUNITY
Another area in which the Beeb differs from other broadcasters is in its approach to local issues and communities.

Just compare the range of information offered to viewers in East Anglia with the almost non-existent regional content of its nearest rival, Anglia.

This local approach is also reflected in online initiatives such as iCan, a pilot scheme encouraging the 40-plus per cent of us who didn't vote in the last general election to take a part in local political life.

"Much of what we do isn't TV-based at all," explains Martin Vogel, iCan's project leader. "In fact, sometimes we're helping people to move on from the TV altogether, so it's not just a different version of the same thing."

HIDDEN TREASURES
The main problem with the BBC site is simply that there's too much of it, which means that many of the best bits never get noticed by the casual user. Here are a few gems that are worth digging out next time you visit.

1. Sport Academy
Another community-based service, not only showing you where local initiatives and training facilities are, but packing in a series of streamed video masterclasses including (of course) Johnny Wilkinson's.

2. Ouch!
Trust the Beeb to take a sensitive subject and handle it no differently from any other. Witty, well-written and filled with helpful links.

3. RadioPlayer
A good example of how streaming audio now supplements the BBC's 10 national radio stations. RadioPlayer is a free audio-on-demand service allowing you to listen to around 300 complete shows or snippets up to a week after their original broadcast. Search according to station or subject matter, and the clip plays back directly from the browser window.

4. World Service
It's ironic that millions of people worldwide only know about Britain through the World Service, and yet most UK users totally ignore it. Available in 43 languages, this is local reporting on a global scale.

5. Fun & Games
It's not all serious and worthy, of course. Check out the surprisingly large selection of free time-wasters. Everything's here, from some imaginative and professional looking arcade games to a nifty Shockwave sequencer that will have you jamming your parents to madness within minutes.

TALENT WILL OUT
Did you watch the latest series of My Hero and think to yourself: "I could do better than that"? Fortunately, there are several ways for you to get your abilities noticed.

1. The Writers Room
A great place for wannabe Ben Eltons, complete with guidelines on how to prepare and submit material, and even a free Word template to get your work into professional looking-shape. Be warned, though, the Beeb's Comedy unit alone receives more than 2,000 scripts a year, so don't expect overnight success!

2. Performers
A slim, but constantly changing page of competitions and programmes looking for new talent. When/if the next series of Fame Academy comes about, you'll hear about it here first.

3. Training
Students with ambitions of a career in the media could do a lot worse than a spot of BBC production training. This is a good place to seek out work experience although, once again, the competition for a scant few (and notoriously badly paid) positions can be somewhat frantic.

GETTING AROUND
Navigating your way around the BBC site is often a case of clicking on a link and hoping for the best but, by and large, there is a certain amount of logic to most of it.

The main hub of the site is the homepage, with other sections and micro-sites hinged off it. So, for example, to find a programme such as EastEnders or Top of the Pops, simply add its title to the main hub (www.bbc.co.uk/eastenders and www.bbc.co.uk/totp, respectively) - a principle that works for many of the most popular sections.

Sometimes, however, this fails. Go to the History page and you see no immediate reference to the one man responsible for renewing interest in the whole subject.

Fortunately, you can always turn to the search engine, clearly listed on every page. So typing in 'Simon Schama' will reveal 158 further links, including his homepage and an interesting streaming video interview.

Finally, if it's just general guidance you're after, you can find it at Communicate, including bulletin boards, user feedback and FAQs covering most of the problem areas.

CONCLUSION
From the consumer's point of view, it's hard not to agree with Keegan's thoughts on the matter. The BBC's may not always be the best-looking site, but you would be hard-pressed to find a subject that it doesn't cover in great detail or an interactive idea it isn't already providing free of charge.

And don't forget, this is the same organisation that gave us the World Service, not to mention Prestel, the BBC Micro and Micronet Live, all hugely influential in terms of the creation of the web itself.

Whether setting new government targets or bowing to commercial pressure will add or detract from our current enjoyment of this boundless resource remains to be seen. For the time being, however, we can be proud of the unique platform that the BBC provides.