It's funny that people prefer search engines to directories (including myself). I'm not sure why. Maybe because I'm afraid that directory content is too restricted and that I'll have more "search results" with a search engine? Go figure What do you think the problem of directories is? What do you think directory owners should do to have people do the switch and prefer using directories instead of search engines? Clearly, a directory will never have as many search results and as much content as a crawler-based search engine. Mahalo, which is not really a directory, most of the time returns the notorious "We're sorry, but we could not find any pages on Mahalo related to blablabla". DMOZ also doesn't have much content if you think about it, even if it's the largest directory... What will it take for directories to attract more people and to replace in some cases search engines? What do you think are directory shortcomings and how would you solve these problems?
I think Yahoo solved it, Their considered a directory, yet last i check on alexa.com Yahoo ranked number 1 top site over the monster known as google, But is Yahoo still considered a Directory Site?
There are lots of directories but no one as popular as google search engine. No one knows about directories except SEO.Most common people do not know what directories are.
@BadXAsh: I think Yahoo used to be a directory (and a good one), but it has been long ago a true search engine @eric_wahlberg: There's gotta be a reason to it. It directories were so good, people would use them on a daily basis
1. No directory is as popular as even the least known search engine. 2. Billions of indexed pages as opposed to a few hundred or few thousand. 3. Practically instant results from a search engine as opposed to navigating a directory. I cant believe people even have to ask the question...
The best porn is in the search engines, thats why, also warez, all the gambling sites, nothing is left out, then you got the darker stuff too on the search engines, you know what im talking about. So why would you search in a directory and not a search engine that has it all? Dont even try and compare a search engine and directory, they are 2 completely different things, they do different jobs, the serve different purposes.
The opposite is true Billions of pages to sort out vs. a few quality pre-selected directory entries...
I was having a look at Mahalo, and I said, "Hey, let's search for hosting and see how relevant are the human-powered search results". The results are in no way related to hosting. Is this web site successful? It looks terrible, it combines shortcomings of both search engines (unrelated search results), and directories (poor index). Doesn't make sense to me.
Depends on what I'm looking for. Some topics are so full of spammy, MFA, and totally useless sites that the search engines rarely return the "best" sites - they are simply returning the sites with owners who are best at SEO. There are some directories that I consult when looking for sites and information on specific topics. I often can find what I'm looking for on them as the description often makes it more clear what the site is about as opposed to the frequently disjointed information included in the SERPs. I know the sites listed will have actual information instead of a bunch of rehashed PLR and other suspiciously obtained content. A site that was submitted to one of my directories had content that was incomprehensible and obviously run through one of those content generator programs, it will be included in the SERPs; no serious directory owner would consider listing such a POS. This reason alone is one that will always make directories a part of my research methods.
I believe that directories have to give people a strong reason to visit, For an established yellowpages , completeness is often the big draw, many people, in the UK certainly, still use yellowpages to find services, if you only use search engines, you'd only find heavily SEO'D pages , probably on totally useless informational sites, use a yellowpages, and you find a multitude of firms offering the service you want in the location and at the time you want this is quite well understood by people, and its up to web directories to carve out their own niche of usefulness
You don't find every site in Directories. You will find almost any good site having geunine content on Search Engines like Google!
Sometimes I do use directories to search for something I need. But when I want to search something new, or the latest news,tools,etc... the search engines are the best. You won't find everything you need in a web directory. There is not web directory that is satisfying everyone, and it is not possible to take a list of directories and start searching something you need...thinking that you MIGHT find something. In a web directory you can find selected websites you can trust organised in categories.
For me it's quite simple — limited content on directories, almost unlimited content on search engines.
But they're of no use, are they? If a search engine meets the visitor's need better than a directory.