Directory
One meaning of the term "directory" is a kind of reference book (or database) providing information about addresses, phone numbers and similar kinds of data, often by alphabetical arrangement.
Another meaning is a directory on a computer, an entity providing overview of files.
A third meaning is in "web directory" used on the Internet
about a site containing links to other sites which are organized into various
categories. Examples of directories are
Yahoo! & Open Directory. Such a
directory is often seen as a tool intended for
browsing
rather than searching tasks. Directories are organized into categories and each
category into sub-categories and are thus kinds of
classification systems. A difference
between directories and search engines is that all web sites in a directory may
be selected by hands whereas search engines use software to automatically index
the web pages. (But classification systems and directories may also be
constructed automatically or semi-automatically).
Hoock (2007, p. 27-28) writes about "the disappearance of directories" ". . . general directories have become largely irrelevant. Directories were most useful for finding a few "good" sites on a fairly general topic. With the improvements in relevance ranking, the first page of search engine results will accomplish exactly that for most people. . . . Looking at this from the other direction, the shift from the use of directories to the use of search engines can be taken as strong evidence that search engine results have significantly improved over the last few years""
Literature:
Hock, R. (2007). Search engines: From Web 0.0 to Web 2.0 and beyond. Online, 31(1), 26-30.
Birger Hjørland
Last edited: 04-06-2007