What Are The Major Online Directories?
site Like search engines, there are hundreds of different directories online. Some are general directories, whereas others are very specific and associated with only one industry or organization. When you’re selecting the directories to which you’d like to submit your site, be choosy. Don’t try to list your in a directory that’s inappropriate. You’ll just be wasting time and collecting rejection slips.
Some of the most well-known directories on the Web are:
■Yahoo! Directory (dir.yahoo.com): The Yahoo! directory is one of the oldest directories on the Internet, but when you go to Yahoo.com you actually won’t be taken to it. Instead, you’ll be taken to a search engine, because Yahoo! changed its format not too long ago. However, you can still access the directory, by going to the web site just listed. Yahoo! directory is a general directory.
■GoGuides.Org (www.goguides.org): This directory’s purpose is to be completely spam- free. It’s a comprehensive search directory that even has image-searching capabilities.
■ Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org): The Open Directory Project is one of the most widely accessed directories on the Web. Users submit sites, and volunteer editors review them. ODP is also an open-source technology, so many other directories use this technol- ogy as a basis for their own offerings.
■Google Directory (directory.google.com): The Google directory is one of those direc- tories built on the ODP platform. Google is most well-known for its search capabilities, but adding a directory takes advantage of the desire of Internet users to dig deeper into very specific search results.
■ SearchSight (www.searchsight.com): Another general directory, Search Sight is one of the lesser-known directories, but it’s quickly gaining traction in the search market.
One reason search directories are still hanging on in an age of search engines is the social nature of those directories. Internet users like to participate in organizing the Web (and you learn more about that in Chapter 18). Socially monitored sites also seem to have more viability with Internet users. People trust others who have the same needs and desires they do much more than they trust robots, crawlers, and spiders.
