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Online Directories: The Real Direction of the Internet
By Adrian Lawrence
Back in the
early days of the Internet, there were only human-edited directories. These were
found primarily in specialized browsers like the Archie or Veronica systems.
Later, Yahoo! used the same basic idea to create a descriptive listing of
websites. This was the birth of the first major online directory for the public
World Wide Web.
Online directories have been around since the first days of the Internet, and
without them and search engines we'd have no simple way of navigating through
the sites. Today, there are thousands of directories online, which can make it
very confusing to determine which are giving you the best quality information.
In fact, many online directories are no better than junk. Unfortunately, with
Google's AdSense program, it has become very profitable in some cases to put
together a directory just so you can run ads on it. These sites are automated
and certainly no better than you might think.
The best directories are the ones edited by dedicated humans, not dedicated
servers. That's because a human being knows what you really need to know, while
a computer doesn't care. Examples of these are Yahoo!, which has a search engine
component, but still maintains its directory content; and Dmoz, an open
directory run by volunteers that also has pretty good quality content. These
directories, and the many quality paid directories that exist, will be around
for a very long time.
Search Engines or Directories: What's The Difference?
To understand why directories may be the future of online searching, you should
understand the difference between a search engine and a directory.
Search engines catalogue the full text of a web site. This text is stored in a
database and made fully searchable. The information appearing next to a link is
dependent upon the metatag information in the web page, or upon the section of
the text where the search term first appears. There is no human intervention,
and no guarantee of quality.
A directory is quite different. Human editors place each site in the directory.
They've gone out and examined the sites in question, put data together to
clarify what the site's really about, and ranked it more fairly than a search
engine could. And the new generation of directories includes wiki technologies
and content that helps define a topic as well as show you where to go for
further information.
What About Wikis?
Wikis are community-edited informational sites, and they're showing up all over
the place. The first was Wikipedia, recently known for an act of vandalism that
made up one person's background. This incident was heavily covered in the media,
and may have coloured the opinions of many people. However, this incident was
atypical of wikis. Nature magazine and other science editors recently did a
quick review of Wikipedia's science content, and determined that it was at least
as accurate and up to date as the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Wikis are proving themselves to be both valuable and accurate. They are also a
great place to go for directory-style and in-text links to sites to deepen your
information. Pretty soon, a wiki is going to be a natural place to go to search
for information on just about anything.
Paid Versus Unpaid Directories
There are both paid and unpaid directories as well. Some of these directories
are basically clones of Dmoz and other popular directory sites; this means the
owner licensed with the directory to duplicate it, and then sold advertising on
it. The site owner gets directory content with little or no work on his part, as
well as the advertising revenue.
Not all unpaid directories are like that, of course, but you do get what you pay
for. A paid directory is both original and human edited. It can also afford to
pay for extras like advertising and marketing, ensuring the directory is known
by the public. Paid directories can also employ SEO experts who can work toward
raising the search engine rating of the site, and traffic experts who can
monitor and increase the traffic to the website.
In the long run, listing with all the unpaid directories is okay, but listing
with paid directories gives you an edge. And in today's marketplace, you need
every edge you can get. About the Author Adrian Lawrence is the webmaster of Indexplex a leading web directory.
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