Here are a few web directories classifying pages in some manner.
The most important is DMOZ, also known as the open directory
project (ODP). Many search engines and directories are based on
this or initially seeded with it. It charges no fee but it can take
weeks to get a locality based listing to years to get some of the
world-wide listings. Alternatives range from Galaxy, reportedly the
oldest web directory (business rate $10/one-time fee in previous
years) to Yahoo, arguably the best known web directory (business
rate about $300/yearly). This page lists only a handful of the
available directories.
Classification by Subject
Where you can get timely listings for free or nearly so
Free. 560,000 pages of listings (May 2007); home Google
pagerank 5 (July 2007); but the structure doesn't seem to have a
populated visual arts home (samples pagerank n/a) and the search
returns improbable matches.
$10 minimum for commerical sites (old info). The site telescope
icon gives a brilliant, up to date site thumbshot. Said to be the
oldest web directory. 498,000 pages of listings (June 2007); home
Google pagerank 4 (July 2007); visual arts pagerank N/A. For a
time, galaxy apparently lost their domain name and temporarily was
gallaxy.com, but it's back to galaxy.com now.
$40 min for commercial sites (old info). 120,000 pages of
listings (May 2007); home google pagerank 6; but arts, visual,
fine, painting, painters, landscapes pr n/a.
$40 min (now $70?) for commercial sites/2 day (old info).
63,900 pages of listings (May 2007); home Google pagerank 5 (July
2007); arts, visual, artists & galleries pagerank 3.
Free. Features instant automatic inclusion. However, you have
to add a proprietary meta tag specifying the desired directory.
14,300 pages of listings (May 2007); home pagerank 4; visual arts
pagerank 2 (July 2007).
Free. Some categories have huge backlogs, months to years long.
If not listed in a category in six weeks, you are allowed to
contact the editor or resubmit. May 2007: 802,000 pages of
listings; home pagerank 8.
This is based on the DMOZ directory with added thumbshots, and
is free for sites in the DMOZ directory. Other sites have to buy a
thumbshot. Its DMOZ base hasn't been updated for a very long time;
there are hundreds to thousands of sites that are in DMOZ but not
in thumbshots.
Other DMOZ copies
Copies of DMOZ can also be found at Gigablast.com and at
directory.google.com and undoubtedly other places, but most of
these seems poorly maintained, being a year or more behind DMOZ.
This is really not excusable, as the DMOZ dump is under 500
megabaytes and is far more current. It also arguably violates the
DMOZ license, which requires removing old versions and updating to
the new. The lack of updating suggests that the copies simply
aren't used enough for anyone to care.
Free. Not really a classified directory, but an index of
businesses whose licenses are in good standing.
Classification by Geographic Region
These usually list businesses by their address, listing them
regionally only if they have have multiple offices or work at
customer sites across a region.
The U.K. Bulletin Board for Libraries listings of websites can
be browsed by Dewey or Subject. Their intent is to provide at least
5 websites but generally not more than 15 per subject. June 2007:
The address resolves but the site is not responding.