Many people use both search engines and directories, but not everybody understands the difference and when it's best to use one or the other .
Directories provide categorized lists of Web sites with brief descriptions .
You move from menu to menu , making one selection after another until you get to the level where sites of the kind you are interested in are listed. You can also search the database that contains the descriptions of all of them. The categories and descriptions are based on submissions by Web site owners, scrutinized and edited by professional or volunteer editors . If you are looking for a summer camp in Maine or a recycling facility in Alabama , the AltaVista Directory is a good place to look. You are looking for a general category of things , and that's how directories are organized.