About

About Communities of Washington

Our community resource website is an online list or catalog of websites. 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 their contact information; such guides are still used today. A web directory or what we like to call a community resource website includes entries about websites, including links to those websites, organized into categories and subcategories. Besides a link, each entry may consist of the title of the website and a description of its contents. In most web directories, the entries are about whole websites rather than individual pages (called “deep links”). Websites are often limited to inclusion in only a few categories.

There are two ways to find information on the Web: searching or browsing. Web directories provide links in a structured list to make browsing easier. Many web directories combine searching and browsing by providing a search engine to search the directory. Unlike search engines, which base results on a database of entries gathered automatically by a web crawler, human editors manually build most web directories. Many web directories allow site owners to submit their site for inclusion and have editors review submissions for fitness.

Web directories may be general in scope or limited to subjects or fields. Entries may be listed for free or paid submission (meaning the site owner must pay to have their website listed).