Feb
2008
“Search Engine” and “Web Directory” are two different search concepts. Normally, the users tend to use search engines by typing in keywords into a search box. It is a quick and easy way to locate any specific information on the internet. Although these two terms reflect the similar connotations but they differ from each other significantly.
‘Search engines indices’ are built up by robots or crawlers while the ‘Web Directories’ build up their indices through human editors. There exists a mix where search engines and directories contain both a computer-generated index and a human generated index. Such types of ‘mixed-indices-configuration’ are known as the “hybrids”.
“Search Engine” and “Web Directory” are two different identities related to the search services available to the Web community. Many times both these terms have been understood as reflecting the same meaning and this becomes confusing.
Understanding ‘Search Engines’ becomes easier with some popular names like ‘Google’, ‘Inktomi’, ‘AltaVista’, and ‘AlltheWeb’. These are forms of search engines. These search engines write programs known as robots, crawlers, and spiders that have the three major functions. The first function is to locate web pages. Second function is to read the contents of the web pages and the third major function is to report its findings back to the search engine’s indices or databases.
Normally the search engines plan to update their index either on a bi-monthly or monthly basis. When web searchers use a search engine to locate web sites that are relevant to the keyword search, they are actually searching the search engine’s index. A search engine with a larger and more up-to-date index therefore is a better representation of the information available within the website realm and it gives out the most relevant and most recent search results.
‘Web Directories” on the other hand, can be best understood with a visualization of popular names including ‘Yahoo!’, ‘dmoz.org’ (Open Directory Project), and ‘Gimpsy’. These all are forms of ‘web directories’. These web-directories use human editors to review different websites that are submitted for submission to the directory. Directories, unlike search engines, use a hierarchical tree structure to organize their database.
Another common differentiating factor is that a directory tends to list websites with specific reference to the root directory of a site or homepage whereas a search engine will list web pages in reference to the individual pages of a website. Because of their dependency on the manual processes of adding sites to a directory, the web directories normally require to supplement their search results with a search engine partner to increase the relevancy of the produced search results.
Working of the web directories does not involve all those complexities like algorithms, robots, search spiders, and crawlers and this makes them comparatively simpler in operation. Search engines, on the other hand, have to be understood properly regarding their working mechanisms.
Search engines necessarily have their own confidential algorithms that determine which Web pages are to be shown first. The algorithms assign weights to certain components or variables that it finds within a page. Some specific search engines consider the text within the title of the page as determinants. Title of a page becomes important to search engines in such search environments and the search engine gives it a higher weight. There are three major reasons. Firstly, it is displayed on the top of the menu bar in the search browser. Secondly, the title is displayed in the search engine results page and thirdly the title is displayed in the search browser bookmarks when this particular page is added as the “favorites” or “bookmarks”.
The particular weights priorities enable the search engine’s algorithms to synchronize and show one Web page over another, determining the page ranks. The specific variables and the suggested weights assigned to those variables are for a separate article. If a webmaster intends to promote his website and want users to find his site, it must be ensured by the webmaster that a search engine spider makes an access to his site and read the respective code. Once this is ensured a webmaster should proceed to make efforts in ensuring that content is written in contextual manner and contains targeted keyword specific language.
Search engines and Web directories have different technology and business practice bases. “Search Engines” use complex algorithms to facilitate the end user to find and locate the answer they are seeking out of a particular search operation. On a different note, the “Web Directories” use a hierarchical tree-like structure to navigate the end user to the information of interest. Both are valid methods to search and both have their pros and cons. They both however have the same basic objective, to help the end user locate a site of interest.
“Web Directories” require a browsing through their hierarchical structure instead of the searched structure. Humans assign titles and descriptions that might not be within the source code of the page. Web directories may also have a submission fee for adding a particular website to a particular category classification on it. The submission fee is to cover the costs of having the human editors review the site. Most directories will only add a new site if it has unique content that is presented in a professional manner by a legitimate company. However, the number of web directories with no submission fee or subscription fee is growing as a new concept.
