Although WWW Virtual Library and Britannica Internet Guide are both guides to the Internet rather than general web page search engines (like Infoseek or Alta Vista), you'll find very little resemblance in the information that they offer.
WWW Virtual Library Serves A Knowledgeable Audience
WWW Virtual Library is a collection of guides to websites about many subjects, mainly compiled by volunteers working at universities in their various fields. It claims to be the oldest guide on the Web, and reflects the Internet's original purpose of linking academic institutions.
Many of the categories included in WWW Virtual Library are highly technical, and the websites listed are suitable for a knowledgeable audience. Quality, comprehensiveness, and methods of organization vary among the subject categories.
Britannica Internet Guide - A Reference For Everyone
Britannica Internet Guide was developed by the encyclopedia company you've always known and loved. The Encyclopaedia Britannica's purpose is to serve as a general reference about a wide range of subjects for all age groups, including high school and grade school students.
Similarly, Britannica Internet Guide's goal is to provide a general reference to quality websites about many subjects. While most of the sites listed are designed for adults, an effort has been made to include some that are child-oriented.
For all but the most technical subjects (e.g. biochemistry), a large proportion of sites listed contain material that is understandable to people with no prior exposure to the subject.
WWW VIRTUAL LIBRARY - A SCHOLARLY GUIDE TO SPECIALIZED INFORMATION
WWW Virtual Library (http://vlib.stanford.edu/Overview.html) encompasses a truly amazing array of websites. It's strength is in the sciences, the humanities, engineering, law, computer science, and other academic subjects, but it also covers a variety of general subjects such as amateur radio and beer brewing.
A drawback of WWW Virtual Library is that keyword searches are not available for websites included in its collection. You can do a keyword search to look for the name of a relevant subject category, or you can browse a hierarchical list of subject areas to find a topic of interest to you.
A Typical Subject Category
The subject category, Botany, is a good example of a topic maintained by an academic subject specialist. Its website coverage is extremely comprehensive and up-to-date (as far as I can tell), and the design is clear and easy to navigate.
