Open Directory Project
The Open Directory Project is an extremely successful Web directory. It's an organized listing of sites assembled by editors around the globe. It is not a search site, but its native search engine provides a respectable means of searching its excellent directory, which is also available on AltaVista, Google, HotBot, Northern Light, and Yahoo! Since Open Directory searches are limited to the information in its own database, they may be incomplete.
You can use wildcards and Boolean operators to refine your search, as well as restrict it to major directory categories, but you can't indicate a preference for a specific date or file type. The engine has two types of results: directly accessible Web pages and browsable directory subcategories. Our search for Federated States of Micronesia, for instance, yielded "Regional: Oceania: Micronesia, Federated States of" -- with each level being a live link. Open Directory also returned specific sites, such as "Embassy of the Federated States of Micronesia (Washington, DC)."
For such general searches, the results are typically accurate. Complex searches, however, are another matter. Natural-language queries, such as "Where can I buy wine online?" mostly returned sites with the words "where" and "can" -- but not "wine."
Direct Link: Open Directory Project
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