Why Search Engines Still Rely on Website Directories
Almost everyone is comfortable with using search engines in 2009, as they allow us to discover websites so quickly. This is important, never the less search engine results aren’t filtered by actual people, but by an algorithmic rule. So why would that be important? Imagine you’re browsing for a hotel in Liverpool as an example. You would enter these keywords into Yahoo! (for example), then a number of results would appear. How can one know whether these results are reliable if they’ve never been vetted by people? Here’s how: search engines utilize human-edited online directories as a basic filter.
Directories still play a fundamental role online, and the best directories are necessarily human edited. A human may recognize that (e.g.) : “hmm, that restaurant has a michelin star, that’s a rather good signal”. A renowned website directory receives many entries on a daily basis. An editor will investigate these entries, and if the editor is content that the quality of the entry is good enough, it is included in to the internet directory. This is the reason why search engines still love website directories. Both the Yahoo! directory and dmoz.org are used by search engines as filters to discover the veracity of a website - whether it’s included in dmoz.org / Yahoo! directory or not, since they are human-edited and have stern rules-for-entry.
And So do not understate the implication of online directories just because most individuals use search engines to discover things. A human-edited directory can act as an important yardstick as to how reliable a website is. If you own a website, seek to get your site added in a niche directory, like a furniture directory, a hotel directory, or a pub directory.
While humans are requiring signals of trustiworthiness, the web will always rely on humans to issue their seal of commendation, and so directories will always play a role.
