Search engines, such as Google, create their listings automatically. Search engines crawl through the web. Search engines eventually find your site and index the pages they find. Page titles, body text (ie, great content), META tags and other elements all play a role in what gets indexed. People then review the results of what was found by the search engine, based on keywords they type into the search engine.
A directory such as Yahoo! Directory depends on human editors to create its listings. You submit a description of your site to the directory for editors to review. A good site, with good content, will be more likely to get reviewed than a poor site. A search of a directory looks for matches only in that directory's index.
Yahoo! also has a search engine that includes spidered websites along with their directory listings and "Sponsor Results" which are pay per click ads, similar to Google's Adwords. Originally Yahoo! displayed only listings from their directory. Then in 2002 they added search engine listings from Google. In 2004 they started using their own search engine based on AltaVista's technology. A few years later they acquired Overture (formerly GoTo) which was the first pay per click program.
Other directories on the web include:
- Directory World
- Website Directory - Gdirectory is a website Directory for free listing
- Google's Directory
- internet-web-directory
- Open Directory - world's largest directory
- PublickRecordsNOW - information and background checks of people