Electronic Searches: Web Directories

Web directories employ human editors to organize information about Web pages into categories and subcategories. Directories allow you to browse lists of Web sites by clicking on general topics, such as Health or Education, and then successively narrow your search by clicking on subtopics. Many directories also permit you to conduct keyword searches within specific categories. This enables you to search within a collection of Web sites that have already been judged by the editors to be relevant to a given topic. Leading Web directories include:

About.com http://about.com

Google Directory http://www.google.com/dirhp

Hoppa http://hoppa.com

InfoMine http://infomine.ucr.edu

Internet Public Library http://www.ipl.org

Librarians' Index to the Internet http://lii.org

LookSmart http://search.looksmart.com

Open Directory Project http://dmoz.org

Web World http://www.webworldindex.com

Yahoo! Directory http://dir.yahoo.com