Introduction to Web Sites for Job Hunting Research

There are places where you will find hundreds to thousands of links to Web sites, organized by subject; these are called "Directories". Unlike Search engines, where results are determined by software, directories are organized by human hand. Also unlike search engines, directories are for browsing. They are hierarchically organized by subject; you start with a general heading and move towards more specific groupings. Conversely, a search engine looks for data that will fit with certain keywords, regardless of subject (except for search engines that use clustering technology; see the search engine section for an explanation). Directories are for when you kind of vaguely know what you are looking for, but need some ideas to help you narrow things down; or when you are looking at general subjects, such as careers, sports, movies, space flight - like that. (Though there are specialized directories as well.)

When you are looking for data on the Internet, directories are often the best place to start. Even if you don't find exactly what you are looking for, the subject categories themselves can help you with ideas on what keywords to use with search engines. Also, like search engines, there can be a lot of variation between different directories, so visit more than one.

Also, you will find two types of Internet directories: open and closed. On open directory sites, you can suggest sites to be included; at some directories, Web sites can even pay to be listed. At closed directories, the entries are vetted by professionals, usually librarians, so the quality of the data you find will tend to be much better.