Web directories are one of the few things that are completely hand organized in an automated computer driven internet. Web directories will take one of several forms. They may be directories of specific types of sites, such as a business web directory of a specific area, or as in the case of DMoz, a web web directory that seeks to be far more inclusive.
A web directory, to be more specific, is a catalog of sites that isn’t done by software, but rather is viewed, cataloged and maintained by human hands.They are put together and maintained by people, who view the site, determine what its worth and whether it is suitable for inclusion in the web directory, then adds or removes it as they believe is fitting.
In most cases, web directories are a great deal smaller and less inclusive than the typical search engine since they aren’t spidered automatically but rather are viewed and put into the directory by people.
Web directories also tend to be subject driven. Your site can be included in the web directory in two different ways. You can submit your site to be reviewed by the people responsible for site addition, or one of the multiple editors of the web directory will come across your site, by being referred to it or, accidentally when surfing the internet for their own purposes.
Web directories can be both good and bad. They are smaller and will offer you much less return for your search. However when a web directory is done for a specific purpose, they are a positive approach because it is easier to assure that you are only given the content that you’re interested in.
One of the most all inclusive and better web directories that we can find online is a prime example of this. Yahoo’s web directory uses its own search engines, as well as several other search services. They offer you what you’re interested in seeing. The search engines which offer up the human added sites are well driven and your site return is usually well targeted to what you were looking for.
Yahoo maintains a web directory that is extremely useful for children, known as Yahooligans. The offerings there are easily searched and geared toward children. The site returns are kid friendly and are relevant to what children might want, making it a very positive experience for both children and parents.
Yahooligans is another prime example of a positive side of web directories. Due to the human factor, it’s far easier to weed out those things which may have great key phrases but use them to “trick” the spiders into including them in a directory into which they do not fit and should not be included.
While less full than those web collections or search engines that offer software driven collections of web sites, web directories are more targeted because the human factor is involved. Business web directories for instance will have probably less margin for error when you view them, and you’ll likely find that there are less landing pages that lead to non-existent web sites included in them.
Even though they do not offer the rate of web site return that a more typical or standard software driven search engine will afford you, web directories are a positive part of the internet. They can offer you a far more targeted return for your search and assure that the inclusions in the directory are what they claim to be.
Humans are less readily tricked by key words and well targeted phrases than spiders for the search engines, which means that you get more of what you came for with web directories.