The Google Directory was a

web directory A web directory or link directory is an online list or catalog of websites. That is, it is a directory on the World Wide Web of (all or part of) the World Wide Web. Historically, directories typically listed entries on people or businesses, and th ...

hosted by Google. It was discontinued on July 20, 2011. However, the Google business places and recommended businesses is now commonly referred to as the Google directory.

Information

The Google Directory was organized into 14 main categories:
Archived version of the Google Directory on th
Internet Archive
. *Arts *Business *Computers *Games *Health *Home *News *Recreation *Reference *Regional *Science *Shopping *Society *Sports There were also two other links on the page: World and Kids and Teens. The World link offered the directory in other languages.
The World tab The Kids and Teens link was a separate web archive for kids and teens. All of the Google Directory was based on the

Open Directory Project DMOZ (from ''directory.mozilla.org'', an earlier domain name, stylized in lowercase in its logo) was a multilingual open-content directory of World Wide Web links. The site and community who maintained it were also known as the Open Directory ...

.Google Web Directory Help - Frequently Asked Question

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Structure

Main page

The main page had links to the 14 main categories, along with the World and Kids and Teens links. There was a big search box on top that allowed users to search the Google Directory. On top of that was the slogan in green letters: "The web organized by topic into categories." On top of that were links to other

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

services.

Main category pages

Each main category page had links to sub-main category pages, as well as a search box on top of it. For example, the Games main category would have sub-main categories such as Board Games or Video Games.

Hierarchy

Each category took the user to the category page, which would have websites that belong to it, or further subcategories that dealt with more detailed areas of that category. Eventually, the user would get to a page with no more subcategories. Every page had a search box at the top, allowing the user to search that page or the whole directory. Each page might have links to related categories. Some links were redirects to other pages.

World link

The World link had the names of languages. If the user clicked on one, they would be taken to a version of the directory in that language. But they had no appearance to the main page.

Kids and Teens

As the name states, it had pages for kids and teens. It was completely disconnected from the rest of the directory, so if you clicked it by accident, you would have to press the back button on your web browser.

Connection with the Open Directory Project

The Google Directory was completely built upon the Open Directory Project. Google integrated its PageRank system and its search system into it. Everything was green. There were links on the bottom so that the user could contribute to it.

Trivia

*If a search result was also in the directory, Google included a link to the respecting category. *If someone wanted to have a listing in the Google Directory, they would have to be listed in the

References

{{Google Inc.

Directory Directory may refer to: * Directory (computing), or folder, a file system structure in which to store computer files * Directory (OpenVMS command) * Directory service, a software application for organizing information about a computer network's u ...

Web directories