Search engines look through all the sites and try to figure out what they are about. then when you search, they list the most relevant one.
Directories are more like the phone book. Sometimes they sort by relevance or popularity, but often times they are just a list... like yellowpages.
Yahoo Directory
These are the search engines and directories, which provides search results for Yahoo.BingYahoo directoryGoogleWikipediaDmoz
There are literally hundreds of search engines on the web. For a relatively good list, see the related link below.
A search directory is an online site that helps you find websites on a specific topic. There are very general directories like DMOZ to niche subject directories and local search directories as well.
search engines and directories
Human powered directories are special types of search engines, organized into subject categories. The directories are smaller than most search engines and do not contain full text of the webpage they link to. Such directories are good when a user is interested in a general topic of search.
Both search engines and web directories allows you to search for websites but results may vary because of the different configuration of their databases. Search engines are using crawlers / bots to read the content of websites and saving them in their database. Web directories are more organized because the websites are already categorized when submitted by humans.
A web search engine is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. The search results are generally presented in a line of results often referred to as search engine results pages (SERPs). The information may be a specialist in web pages, images, information and other types of files. Some search engines also mine data available in databases or open directories. Unlike web directories, which are maintained only by human editors, search engines also maintain real-time information by running an algorithm on a web crawler.(Source: Wikipedia)
A web search engine is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. The search results are generally presented in a line of results often referred to as search engine results pages (SERPs). The information may be a specialist in web pages, images, information and other types of files. Some search engines also mine data available in databases or open directories. Unlike web directories, which are maintained only by human editors, search engines also maintain real-time information by running an algorithm on a web crawler. (Source: Wikipedia)
You have to create link building campaigns and plenty backlinks. Now you have to post in forums, blogs, article directories and link directories, messages with your link inside. Not spamming, only be part to the community.
A web search engine is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web and FTP servers. The search results are generally presented in a list of results and are often called hits. The information may consist of web pages, images, information and other types of files. Some search engines also mine data available in databases or open directories. Unlike Web directories, which are maintained by human editors, search engines operate algorithmically or are a mixture of algorithmic and human input.
Google!