The humoral immune response to HIV-1 has been extensively studied over the past few years and considerable advances have been made in understanding the dynamics and specificity of the neutralizing antibody component during and after seroconversion. Despite this, there is still no clear understanding of the role of neutralizing antibodies in controlling or preventing HIV-1 infection. Candidate vaccines have been based on immunogens designed to elicit a neutralizing response, but the recent vaccine trial failures force us to reconsider the role of neutralizing antibodies in HIV-1 infection and the type of vaccine preparation used.