The major Directories

Yahoo!www.yahoo.com/

This is the best-known and most comprehensive subject directory, in which the search can be conducted via categories or directly by means of keywords. Yahoo! subdivides more than 750,000 websites into more than 25,000 categories. Most sites are put forward by users, subsequently assessed by the Yahoo! editors, and, if approved, assigned to a category.

In addition, Yahoo! can keep you posted about topical news items, stock exchange developments, and sports results. It is also possible to search for persons on the Net. Yahoo! has a large number of regional subject directories, in which national, and, in the case of Yahoo! Spanish, Latin-American websites are presented per subject.

Open Directory Project (ODP) http://www.dmoz.org/

As the web grows, automated search engines and directories with small editorial staffs, like Yahoo, are unable to cope with the volume of sites. Automated search engines are increasingly unable to turn up useful results to search queries. The small paid editorial staffs at commercial directory sites can't keep up with submissions, and the quality and comprehensiveness of their directories has suffered.

The Open Directory Project's goal is to produce the most comprehensive directory of the web, by relying on a vast army of volunteer editors. The Open Directory provides the opportunity for everyone to contribute to help build the most comprehensive human-reviewed directory of the web. At the moment about 20,000 volunteers have been registered. At the moment the Open Directory Project is one of the fastest growing services on the Web. Competing portals like Lycos, AT&TWorldnet and AltaVista by now use the ODP-formula.

Besides Yahoo! and ODP, the following subject directories are good alternatives:

Galaxy http://galaxy.einet.net/
LookSmart http://www.looksmart.com/
Snap http://www.snap.com/
About.com http://home.about.com/index.htm
Lycos http://www.lycos.com/
transformed from search robot into subject directory and the first US Internet portal that has been acquired by a foreign firm, the Spanish Internet service provider Terra Networks, daughter of Spain's biggest phone company Telefonica.

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This file prepared and presented as an aid to help students understand the web. Send questions or comments to Royce Shook

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