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There are two basic ways to find information systematically on the Web: browsing and searching. Up until now, we've been talking about searching -- how to choose search terms and craft queries to locate the information you seek. This lesson describes how to browse by following links on Google's Directory.
Google organizes the Directory into categories that are classifications of pages by subjects. The Directory is similar to the table of contents in a book. Browsing a book's table of contents, which includes the titles of chapters and sections, allows a reader to quickly find interesting sections of the book. Similarly, browsing a subject-oriented directory, enables a user to quickly locate categories containing related documents. However, there's no assurance that what you're seeking will be in the book or web page.
See the top level classifications by visiting directory.google.com.
Google's web-search index is built automatically by computers that crawl the web. Google's Directory is created by volunteer human-subject matter experts who contribute to the Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org). The raw open-source directory is used not just by Google, but also by Netscape Search, AOL Search, Lycos, HotBot, and DirectHit. The volunteers evaluate, classify, and annotate each entry. The entries are then ranked by Google's PageRank algorithms.
Consider using the Directory instead of Google's web search whenever you want to:
Fewer sites are included in the Directory than in Google's web search but those that are included tend to be of high quality.
Use Google's Directory when you want to explore by clicking on topics, i.e., browse. For example, to learn about travel, click on the Travel category, which is included in the top-level category Recreation, which you'll see abbreviated as Recreation > Travel on the page.
To narrow your search, consider browsing subcategories or related categories, which the Directory includes on your results page. Next to each subcategory is a number in parentheses (), which is the number of links included in that category. Names of categories with lots of entries are shown in boldface.
With Google's Directory, you can browse and/or search to find pages of interest to you. If you're unfamiliar with a topic, browse through a few levels of categories and then restrict your search to a particular branch of the Directory by selecting the "Search only in ..." radio button before entering your query in the search box
Directory drawbacks include: size, timeliness, and coverage. Since computers can crawl the web and add index entries much faster than humans can travel the web and evaluate pages, most directories, including Google's, have significantly fewer entries than searchable indices. Since directory links are maintained by hand, upkeep and maintenance are time-consuming. It's difficult for editors to keep up with the dynamic nature of the web. Because different people edit, annotate, and add entries, some categories in a directory are well-populated and others are sparse.
For more information on Google Directory visit www.google.com/dirhelp.html.
Exercises
These problems give you practice in using the Google Directory.
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