Online directories and databases provide an alternate means to search engines to locate information on the Internet. Online directories are lists of links to websites organized by topic. Since these lists are generated and maintained by humans, not automatically, these directories can miss information indexed by search engines. However, this same human intervention helps to preserve the quality of the information in the directories such that factually incorrect or irrelevant websites can be excluded. The following are two popular examples of online directories: Directories are organized hierarchically. Finding a specific website can be difficult if the topic is ambiguous. However, once a topic is found, generally the directory will also contain a whole list of related sites for multiples sources of information that by necessity is relevant and related. Directories are therefor a good followup research tool to be used after a search engine if more detailed information is required. Online databases are collections of information maintained by a group or institution. These databases can be similar to their print peers like Encyclopedia Britannica. However, the enormous power of open source collective projects in combining the best ideas of a large number of people as seen in the development of Linux, Wikipedia, and Mozilla Firefox can make online databases very valuable to the researcher. One of the best examples of this kind of database can be found at the following link: Wikipedia, as an encyclopedia, is an example of an online database. This website is good to use to find factual information. While the quality of the information available on Wikipedia is generally much higher than that of normal web based content, the open source model does allow for some abuses that can contaminate the database with false information. Examples of this are biographies of historical figures edited by the figure themselves. |