Directories arrange their sites into hierarchical subject categories. Directories are created and maintained by people while search engines use robots and spiders to gather Internet links. Directories can be browsed by subject or searched by keyword. Browsing through directories is not always the best way of retrieving information, but often it can be a good start on a topic with which you are not familiar.
Browsing vs. Searching
Browse when you're not exactly sure of what information you want or expect to find; search when you know exactly what you want.
Major Directories
- Infomine
http://infomine.ucr.edu
Over 120,000 reliable annotations compiled cooperatively by university & college-level, academic librarians of the UC campuses.
- About.Com
http://www.about.com
Over 1 million good annotations put together by "Guides" with various levels of expertise
- Librarians' Internet Index
http://www.lii.org
A searchable and browsable collection of over 16,000 high-quality Websites and a weekly newsletter, available by email or RSS, of high-quality Websites related to current events, holidays, and popular and important issues. It is compiled by public librarians. Has good and reliable annotations.
http://www.google.com/dirhp
Includes approximately 1.5 million web pages, selected by the Open Directory Project and enhanced by Google searching and ranking.
- Yahoo
http://directory.yahoo.com
Includes about 2 million pages. Useful for popular and commercial topics.
- Galaxy
http://galaxy.einet.net
The Internet's First Searchable Directory. Information is compiled and organized by human Internet Librarians, Masters of Library Sciences graduates with experience in specific topic areas.
- LookSmart
http://www.looksmart.com
Hand-picked Web sites organized into categories. It covers 1.2 billion Web pages.
- Open Directory Project
http://www.dmoz.com
Most of the pages selected and evaluated by category editors who are specialists in the field. Open directory can be searched or browsed. Google directory is exactly the same thing. Google copied it from Netscape.
Virtual Libraries or Subject Guides are considered to be the best places to find web resources on a particular topic.