Who Needs A Directory When Search Is Powerful (And Profitable)?
from the times-change dept
When Yahoo first came on the scene they weren't famous for being a search engine, but for having a massive directory of websites that was a cataloged by human editors. The search engine worked on top of that directory to help people find what they were looking for. However, times are changing, and the search business is a different world. Directories have become less useful (if they're at all useful any more), as pure search has become much better (thank you, Google). At the same time, paid advertising via search engines has offered a much more compelling business model than "paid inclusion" in directories. Most people probably haven't noticed because they moved beyond using directory-based searches ages ago, but the directory business looks like it's finally going away. Yahoo won't admit this, but many are wondering why they even bother having the directory at all any more (other than to get some cash out of those who still feel they need to pay to be included in the directory).
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Directories are useful, but not in the way most pe
Perhaps one day Google's engine will get smart enough to allow these kinds of searches, but for now the directory still remains useful.
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