The following is a table of differences between search directories and
engines:
Directories
|
Engines
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- Internet sites are organized by subject.
|
- Internet sites are organized in databases by automated computer
programs (spider and bots).
|
- Listings are compiled by humans.
|
- Listings are compiled by computer programs.
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- Internet sites collected are often evaluated by humans.
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- There is no evaluation of the collected sites.
|
- Good for beginners. Users can control their search by browsing
in the appropriate directory.
|
- Users need to learn the engine's syntax in order to do an effective
search. In other words, you need to learn the proper words that
a specific engine will respond to. (i.e. some engines will respond
to the operator AND and others might respond to + instead)
|
- Good for gathering resources on a general topic. Provides a
list of sites on the same subject.
|
- Good for locating a very specific page within a web site..
|