The Compendium is a reference directory in the tradition of the printed gazetteer — a structured index of web-based concerns, organised by trade and accessible to anyone with a need to locate an active site in a given field. It was built on the conviction that the web, despite its scale, benefits from the kind of clear organisational logic that a well-kept reference volume provides.
The directory covers 22 sections, each corresponding to a broad area of commercial or informational activity. Within each section, entries are listed by domain and accompanied by a short description of the concern's declared purpose. The entries are drawn from submissions made by site operators themselves, each of which is reviewed for URL activity before being included in the index.
The Compendium does not sell placement, rank entries by commercial value, or weight its listings in favour of any particular operator. An entry either meets the basic criteria for inclusion — an active URL and a declared primary category — or it does not. This approach keeps the directory consistent in character regardless of the volume of entries in any given section.
Submitting a site to the Compendium is free and straightforward. Operators complete a short form, select the most appropriate section, and provide a brief description of their site. Once verified, the entry is added to the relevant section and made searchable. The Compendium does not guarantee indexing timelines but processes all verified submissions in order of receipt.
For readers, the Compendium is most useful as a starting point for locating active web resources in unfamiliar areas. The directory is not exhaustive — no single directory is — but it offers a reliable cross-section of the web as submitted, organised with the care one expects from a reference work rather than an algorithmic feed.