Almost everyone is comfortable with using search engines nowadays, as they allow us to locate websites rather quickly. This is great, however search engine results aren’t moderated by actual people, instead it’s done by an algorithm. Why is that significant? Well, imagine you’re searching for a restaurant in Edinburgh for example. You would enter this keyphrase into Google (for example), then a number of results would be presented. How do you know whether these results are reliable if they’ve never been vetted by people? Here’s how: search engines use human-administered website directories as a primary filter.

Directories still play a part on the internet, and the greatest directories are unavoidably human edited. A human may realise that (for example) : “hmm, that restaurant has a michelin star, that’s a rather good sign”. A reputable website directory receives many submissions daily. An editor will investigate these entries, and if the official is content that the quality of the entry is good enough, it is appended to the online directory. And this is why Google still loves internet directories. Both the Yahoo! directory and dmoz.org are utilized by search engines as filters to discover the trustworthiness of a website - whether it’s listed in dmoz.org / Yahoo! directory or not, as they are human-edited and have stern rules-for-entry.

Thus don’t understate the significance of online directories just because almost everyone uses search engines to find websites. A directory with stern guidelines can be a crucial yardstick as to how trustworthy a website is. If you are a website owner, also look to get your site listed in a niche directory, like a furniture directory, a clothing directory, or a health directory.

While mankind is requiring signals of trustiworthiness, the internet will invariably require individuals to present their stamp of approval, and therefore directories will invariably play a part.