[WEB4LIB] Terminology problem

[Danny Sullivan]

> 1) We have directories - indexed or at least categorized
> like Yahoo!, Bubl, WWW Virtual Library and my latest
> favourite, Open Directory Project. All entries are
> screened at some point by a human. I call these directories -
> no problem.

Technically, directories, yes. However, so many people call them search
engiens that I've taken to also describing them as "human-powered search
engines."

> 2) Then there are  the robot generated indexes -
> Google, NorthernLight, Fast etc. What is the
> common word for all these?

Technically, search engines. But given the issue with Yahoo and others, I
tend to describe these now as "crawler-based search engines."

> 3) Then there is my quest for a word that covers both
> categories.

I coined a term "hybrid search engine" that is sometimes used. However,
practically all the major search engines, human-powered or crawler-based,
mix both types of data. They tend to be more one than the other, however --
so use whatever term describes how they get the bulk of results displayed.
IE, AltaVista is crawler-based, despite some human info. Yahoo is
human-powered, despite having some crawler-based info.

cheers,
danny

-----------------------------------
Danny Sullivan
Editor, SearchEngineWatch.com
http://searchenginewatch.com