What is a Web directory? Although the terms search engine and subject directory are sometimes used interchangeably, they are not the same thing.
How A Web Directory Works
A Web directory organizes Web sites by subject, and is usually maintained by humans instead of software. The searcher looks at sites organized in a series of categories and menus. Web directories are usually much smaller than search engines' databases, since the sites are looked at by human eyes instead of by spiders.
There are two ways for sites to be included in a Web directory's listings; either the site owner can submit the site to the Web directory, or the directory's editor(s) will eventually come across that site.
How to Search a Web Directory
- The searcher types a query into the Web directory, or searches the Web directory's indexed categories.
- The Web directory matches the searcher's query with relevant data from its index.
Find a Web Directory
- Yahoo: Yahoo has one of the best Web directories on the Web, along with its own search engine listings and many other search services.
- Look Smart is hard to classify as just a Web directory; especially with its recent foray into vertical search channels.
- The Open Directory has been around since 1999, and is a human-edited directory. Also known as DMOZ (Directory Mozilla), the Open Directory Project purports to be the “largest on the Web”, constructed and maintained by a “vast, global community of volunteer editors.”
