[thelist] Directory Sites
Paola Kathuria
paola at limitless.co.uk
Wed Mar 28 09:16:11 CST 2001
Paul Fisher wrote:
> He wants to see some examples of such directory sites. Of course there's
> Yell.com, but does anyone know of any other sites like this - in any
> industry or topic?
The Internet Movie Database http://www.imdb.com/
Deja News had an interesting search form but it's sadly gone.
You're right, the search facilities on a company directory
will be what makes or breaks it as a resource.
I think it needs to offer various levels of search:
- (simple) on all pages, a single input box that searches
all fields
- or (simple +) single input box accompanied by a pull-down
box determining what field to be searched (default "anywhere
in the directory")
- (full) for every field in the entry, allow a search (radio
buttons to control whether or "and" or "or" - results listed
in descending order of number of matches found.
- (mid-way) form with commonly-used fields (name, location,
services)
- ability to refine search (search in the last results list)
- ability to return to the results list from an entry
- ability to go back or forward entries (as listed in the
results list)
- ability to sort results by different fields
- ability to save searches (for redoing later)
- choose between short (a line per company) and summary results
(name followed by a structured summary)
I have maintained a directory of UK Internet companies since
1992 but the web site version is probably an example of how
not to do it since it's badly in need of a complete overhaul.
It started off with 12 companies and now has over 1000. It
went from a single file listing all companies to an alphabetical
list linking to a page for each company. (It's not generated by
a database and search is via an old Excite search). However,
the point of my mentioning it is that I don't think that the
alpha listing is useful as the main listing order. By service
would be more useful (even if it means companies appearing under
multiple headings).
Also, I think it'd be useful to mark several entries so that
they can be printed as a single "page" (I've shopped around,
now I want a to-do list so that I can phone them all.)
The (inactive) submissions page links to other ISP directories.
http://www.limitless.co.uk/inetuk/add.html
Paola
More information about the thelist
mailing list