Directories and search engines -- when to use what

At the large Web sites that call themselves "portals," you will probably have a choice of searching or browsing through the content of their site and/or of the Web at large. You search when you know exactly or fairly close to what you want. You enter the appropriate word or words in the syntax required by that search engine and ideally you go to a hyperlinked list of pages that probably contain the information you want.

If you don't find what you want on the first try, that's either because the information isn't available, or because you need to improve your "query"--that is make your search terms more precise and make sure you are using proper syntax. Syntax is the structure for the query that this particular search engine requires, for instance the use of punctuation. (There are no standards. They all do it their own way.)

When you are uncertain--maybe you know the category, but are looking for suggestions or ideas, you should browse or surf through directory listings. In this case you look at organized lists of choices, perhaps with descriptions attached and probably with hyperlinks to more detailed choices. This is like walking into a book or music store, going to you favorite section, and scanning the shelves to see what's new and what might catch your interest.

Most people favor one style more than the other--it's a matter of personality. Beginners strongly favor directories, because they feel familiar--like yellow pages listings. Sometimes you think in categories and sometimes in specifics. If I want to find a college in Southern California, I'll go through a directory, checking under colleges, then US, then California, then Southern California, scan the list and pick the ones I want to check out.

If I want to find driver software for my BJ200 Canon printer so I can run it with the new operating system I just installed on my computer, I'll use a search engine and go straight to the Web page I want. Everybody will probably use both these modes of operation at one time and another.

With a directory, you depend on the judgment and hard work of others to sort out what information is important and how pieces of information relate to one another. Using such a service exclusively would be like having someone else arranges your house, categorize your email into folders, arrange your books, organize your CD collection or your videotapes.

Most people prefer to define "order" based on how their own mind works and makes associations, rather than on the tastes of someone else. At first someone else's order might seem convenient, but as you become more familiar with the Internet and what's really possible, these structures begin to get in your way.

With a normal search engine which is different from a price comparison search engine , if you go through the trouble of learning the commands, you can pluck whatever you want from the massive disorder of the Internet whenever you want, and quickly. And you aren't limited by the decisions of others. The search engines send out robots on expeditions of exploration and discovery, so you don't have to. But they don't make judgments of relevance or worth--that's your role; and that way the one item that is most important to you doesn't get filtered out before you learn that it exists.