Website directories are popping up all over the Internet lately.From pub directories – showing your closest local pub, to feature packed comparison portals – giving you the best deals from across the Internet from different websites.
Directories are generally very useful to the average Internet user.They have a huge amount of information, usually well over 40,000 entries, although this does depend greatly on the genre of the directory.
Let us focus on the example of a pub directory, where there is a large list of all pubs through out the UK.This sort of directory is helpful to website members for a number of reasons. Not only does it give the consumer access to a range of information at his or her finger tips, such as the name, location, address and telephone number of the pub or restaurant, but the pub directory will also give the consumer access to reviews from other consumers who have visited.
General information is available, such as whether there is a pub quiz, and if there is on what days it is available. As a general rule for directories, it is known that the emphasis must be kept on the end-user, or the consumer.Too much importance on the listings often damages the results and turns a potentially awesome, accurate and thorough directory into a list of numbers and names.
Staying with the example of the pub directory, we can also see how users like to interact with web sites over the years. If you look at some of the older pub directories on the Internet (there are a few), the pre-2000 pub directories are very simple looking, with simple search features, and, by their very nature, out-of-date data. The directories that popped up in the mid-2000’s are a little better, with more pubs, better features and more introduced into the design.The more recent directories, are packed full of features. Things like advanced search facilities, allowing the user to search by postcode, or town/city. The ability to interact with maps to locate the pub and see other pubs in close proximity. Or what about the ability to leave a review about a rating out of 10, so that other users can see what pub-goers think of the establishment or if it’s worth a visit on their forthcoming trip?
How about interaction with social media?If we go back to the point about the end-user being the most important aspect of the directory, then we should make the information as accessible as possible whilst remaining free. Things like Twitter accounts giving access to the data, as well as free news should be thought of, or Facebook accounts and applications that allow quick and convenient browsing of the data, and sharing of the data to their friends in a relevant environment are paramount to the success of forthcoming directories in the future.
It is my firm belief that in the coming year the common Internet directory will see it’s day and become no more. With Facebook groups and Twitter accounts empowering the listee’s (pubs in our example) to display their own data (which by it’s very nature will be much more concise, although not necessarily accurate) large sites containing information on all companies of a certain genre will simply cease to serve a purpose and disappear as quickly as they were born.