Now that we have Keywords we can try to find some information on the Web. (Keywords were developed in Section 3: Our topic is Civil War Generals, keywords are civil war, general, union, biography).

The first Search Site we are going to use is a Search Directory. A Search Directory is both searchable and browsable. Directories have structure, and that structure can help a searcher find information quickly. The classic Search Directory is Yahoo!.

Yahoo!

Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com) tracks half a million sites divided into more than 25,000 categories. You can browse Yahoo! by simply clicking on the various categories listed on each page. Search Yahoo! by entering a word (or, a few words) into the search box that appears on every page in the directory. Combine the two strategies and you can "browse and then search" or "search and then browse."

Yahoo accepts URL submissions, and checks each site it lists by hand (which means there is a team of people that check sites, confirm URLs, and write and review descriptions. It's a big job, but searchers can be assured that the sites Yahoo! lists have been checked and approved to meet Yahoo! standards. It also means that Yahoo! can rate some sites as better than others. Yahoo! uses a sunglasses icon []to indicate sites the reviews think are "cool" (and possibly worth checking out).

The top part of the Yahoo! screen has the search box (1).

Underneath are special Yahoo! features (2)

The lower part of the Yahoo! screen are the major category sections (3a) and some popular subcatagories (3b).

Browsing

Browsing is a way to burrow down through the category hierarchy until you reach a level that lists individual web sites. To quote Yahoo!:

"Yahoo!'s hierarchy is made up of categories that follow this structure of general to specific. The fourteen top categories [3a] contain every other Yahoo! category; and every last piece of information within Yahoo! lives somewhere within those categories. They are the fourteen most general starting points we could find.

Arts and Humanities Business and Economy Computers and Internet Education Entertainment Government Health

News and Media Recreation and Sports Reference Regional Science Social Science Society and Culture

That's the list. Everything contained within Yahoo! lives somewhere in the 14 categories. For example:

The White House Web site lives in the category Government: Executive Branch
The city of Houston lives in the category
Regional: U.S. States: Texas: Cities
The movie Star Trek lives within the category
Entertainment: Movies and Films: Genres: Science Fiction and Fantasy
Mutual Funds? Easy:
Business and Economy: Companies: Financial Services: Investment Services: Mutual Funds"