Online Environment

Search Tools

Applied Searching

Site Evaluation

Site Submission

Home

Unit 2: Search Tools

Types-Directories

Examples
About.com http://www.about.com
Britannica.com   http://www.britannica.com
DMOZ - Open Directory Project http://dmoz.org
Librarians Index to the Internet  http://www.lii.org
LookSmart  http://www.looksmart.com/
Yahoo http://www.yahoo.com

Background
Directories are aggregates/catalogs of web sites collected, evaluated and organized into categories by people . Directories are good for folks who have a broad or popular commercial topic  and want to browse through subjects to narrow down their topic.  Some directories are compiled by information professionals or scholars (About.com, Britannica, and  Librarians Index to the Internet) and others are commercial  (DMOZ and Yahoo). Many searchers use Librarian's Index to the Internet as a  good first step in looking for information on the visible web because the sites returned  while fewer in number have been carefully reviewed and thoroughly described. Once again, remember you are looking for the good stuff, not thousands of sites you have to analyze and evaluate yourself.

Directory  databases are generally smaller than the search engine databases  simply because people reviewing and categorizing web sites can't work as fast as spiders and robots. They are usually arranged in broad subject categories  which encourage browsing among related topics. The  Open Directory Project (DMOZ) is unique in that it  serves as the topic directory  for several search engines including  Netscape Search, AOL Search, Google, Lycos, HotBot, DirectHit and many more. When you visit the Google home page and select the Directory tab you will be using the DMOZ directory.  DMOZ represents the democracy of the WWW because it invites net-citizens to join the project as  volunteer editors to help them catalog the web. 

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      Last revision August 24, 2002