It can be overwhelming, frustrating, and difficult to find exactly what you are looking for. We hope this article will help you figure it out. Excite, or Alta Vista. Before we begin, let's explain the difference between search engines and directories. They then index or catalog these pages when you conduct an Internet search.
Search engines base their findings on key words placed in Web pages they scan.
Some search engines use link popularity as part of their ranking method, which means that the more external links there are to a site, the higher in the search results the page will appear. Directories generally depend on people to maintain their listings. Staff persons visit and evaluate Web sites and then place these sites in subject categories or sub-categories in the directory. In addition, there are also hybrid search engines that are directories that can also be searched using keywords and meta search engines that search many different directories and search engines in one search. LookSmart launched independently in October 1996, was backed by Reader's Digest for about a year, and then LookSmart bought back complete control of the service.