The Occult Bot

Everybody is familiar with browsing the web with search engines nowadays, as they allow us to discover things so speedily. This is fundamental, nonetheless search engine results aren’t calculated by humans, instead it’s done by an algorithm. So why would that be remarkable? Well, imagine you are browsing for a restaurant in Manchester for example. One would type these keywords into Yahoo! (for example), then a number of results would be presented. How do you know if these results are reliable if they haven’t been been vetted by people? Here’s how: search engines utilize human-administered website directories as a rudamentary filter.

Directories still play a part online, and the most discriminating directories will be unavoidably human edited. A human may discover that (for instance) : “hmm, that restaurant has a particular rating for cleanliness and having certain standards, that’s a really encouraging sign”. A reputable website directory will receive many entries on a daily basis. An official will look into these entries, and if the administrator is content that the quality of the entry is good enough, it is appended to the internet directory. And this is why search engines still love internet directories. Both the Yahoo! directory and dmoz.org are used by search engines as filters to discover the veracity of a website – whether it’s included in dmoz.org / Yahoo! directory or not, as they are human-edited and have demanding rules-for-entry.

Thus do not understate the implication of online directories just because most people use search engines to discover things. A human-edited directory can be a crucial yardstick as to how trusted a website is. If you own a website, seek to get your site listed in a niche directory, like a construction directory, a hotel directory, or a beauty directory.

While humans are needing signals of trustiworthiness, the web will invariably need humans to issue their stamp of commendation, and thus directories will forever play a role.

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