Is an alphabetical list of Web pages a form of an index?
An alphabetical list of Web page titles, or even edited titles, is not a Web site index, just as an alphabetical list of chapter titles does not constitute a book index. One of the more obvious reasons is the fact that the wording of page titles can be quite different from a typical index entry. For example, the page title “Work For Us,” while catchy as a heading, is not likely to be quickly found by a user searching for a job in an alphabetical list of Web site pages. A true index entry to the “Work For Us” page, on the other hand, could be posted as “careers,” “employment,” or “jobs” – or indeed all three. As well, a simple alphabetical sorting of Web pages would lack variant or cross-reference terms and second-level entries, all of which would be found in a true index.
