Subject Guides

Defined:
Also known as Directories, Subject Guides are websites which allow you to browse the web by subject. I like to think of Subject Guides along the same lines as a big menu. If you go into a restaurant you'll see a menu which breaks food into different categories - i.e. appetizers, main courses, deserts, etc. Sometimes you'll also see a menu break down into something like main courses-chicken, main courses-fish, etc. Just remember, if you're like me sometimes you eat dessert as an entree. You can kind of imagine this as being in the restaurant with the world's largest menu.

Advantages:
- Hand-selected sites picked by editors, more or less carefully
- Organized into hierarchical subject categories
- Often annotated with descriptions (not in Yahoo!)
- Browse subject categories or search using broad, general terms
- Can be used to find sites similar to one that you like. I.E. type the name of a site that you like (not the URL) and when you search it will bring up categories that that site is listed in...by choosing the category you can see other related sites

Disadvantages:
- NO full-text of documents. Can search only the subject categories and descriptions.
- Because they are usually reviewed by editors or subject specialists, Subject Guides generally cover less material than a Search Engines or MetaSearch Engines.
- Possible that the site reviewer(s) doesn't think like you and may categorize something not in a way that you would.

Examples:
Yahoo (www.yahoo.com)
Magellan (magellan.excite.com/)
Argus Clearinghouse (www.clearinghouse.net)