Building the taxonomy of the web

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NetInsert is a self organized web directory where users can index web content and contribute to the development of a global and comprehensive subject classification of the web. The classification system (taxonomy) will continuously be developed as the web directory grows. The development is driven in two ways:

• Category management by NetInsert editorial staff (new, renamed, and deprecated categories)
• New categories suggested by users ("candidate categories")

The use of candidate categories enables the Internet community to directly influence the direction of the taxonomy of the web. A candidate category is a user suggested category. Candidate categories can only be created in categories which are full (at the present time a category is full if the number of pages indexed in the category has reached 50). A candidate category must index at least one web page in order not to be automatically deleted, and it must index at least eight web pages to be listed as a standard category in the directory. In this way, the candidate category mechanism constitutes an implicit voting system for defining the taxonomy of the web. Only when sufficient consensus is reached on the definition of a new category (as measured by the number of web pages indexed in the category) will it be listed as a standard category in the directory.

Guidelines for creating candidate categories

• Avoid regional categories: Before a new category is suggested please review the NetInsert directory system for other national or regional directories that may apply for your website. For example, if your site is about Real Estate in Illinois, do not suggest a subcategory "Illinois" in a category for Real Estate in World. Instead, go to the directory for Illinois and add your web site under the category for Real Estate in Illinois
• If regional categories must be used create a root "By Region": If the subject matter is inherently reqional such as "Real Estate" and there are no regional directories available in NetInsert for that region (for example web pages in english about Real Estate in Thailand), suggest a category named "By Region". This category will then become the root for regionalization in that subject branch.
• Avoid repeating key subject terms which are used in parent categories: Do not reuse key subject terms which are already in use in any of the parents to the new category. For example, if the parent category is "Italian Food" do not create a category with the name "Italian Pizza", instead use the more succinct term "Pizza".
• Narrow the subject: suggest a subject which narrows the subject of the parent, not vice versa. For example, if the parent subject is "Web Hosting" a narrowing subject might be "Dedicated Servers", or "CPanel" or "Free".
• Select new subjects based on mainstream concepts: suggest new terms which are well known and widely accepted. Remember that the category you suggest will be used by many people and may even become the root of an entire subject branch over time.
• As a last resort go Alphabetic: If subject narrowing is no longer possible and regionalization does not apply, and there still are hundreds of sites with similar information use alphabetic letters to organize the sites, i.e. with categories like "A", "B", etc. Note however that alphabetic categories should only used as the very last resort for organizing the web since they provide little benefit for the end user.
• Capitalize All Terms: capitalization is the standard notation in the NetInsert taxonomy

If there are any questions or suggestions regarding the NetInsert taxonomy please do not hesitate to contact us.