Do you know about – Web Directories

A web directory is a listing of websites organized in a hierarchy of categories.

A web directory is large collection of links to websites which are categorized well. Web directories have great significance and user trust because the owner or moderator(s) of the web directory first review the website and only then list it. These web directories are very useful to ordinary surfers and also to high level search engines. Many website try very hard to get their website listed on good web directory. Even today, many people are still unaware of the term ‘web directory‘. In this article, I will briefly discuss what web directories are and what they are capable of.

Basically, a web directory is series of web pages, categorizing links to other web pages.
One might associate a web directory with his local yellow pages. Another common definition is that web directory is a directory on the World Wide Web which specializes in linking to other websites and categorizing their links. Web directories often permit site owners to submit their website for inclusion, and have human editors review submissions.

Some people think a web directory as a search engine. Actually, it is not. In addition, it does not display web pages based on keywords, instead listing web pages in convenient categories/subcategories. The categorization is generally based on not a set of keywords, but the whole website and there is often a limit of one or two categories for site inclusion.

There are numerous directories on the internet, the most well known ones being provided by Lycos, Yahoo, LookSmart, Google and ODP (Open Directory Project). The latter is a powerful player in the directory market because of its open content approach to editorial review and its use by Zeal and Google. Looksmart’s voluntary run directory closed in the first quarter of 2006, much to the dismay of the users.

Experts still refute the statement which says web directories have superior quality. Furthermore, web directory development is still said to be a relatively hard task. Hopefully, there have been many attempts in recent times to make directory development easier by using a ‘links for all’ kind of link submission site using a script, or any number of available PHP portals/programs. As an icing on the cake, social software techniques have spawned new efforts of categorization, with major websites like AMAZON adding tagging to their product pages.

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