  An ever-increasing body of evidence suggests that weakly interacting massive
particles (WIMPs) constitute the bulk of the matter in the Universe.
Experimental data, dimensional analysis and Standard Model particle physics are
sufficient to evaluate and compare the performance of detectors searching for
such particles either directly (e.g.\ by their scattering in germanium
detectors), or indirectly (e.g.\ by observing their annihilation into neutrinos
in underground detectors). We conclude that the direct method is superior if
the WIMP interacts coherently and its mass is lower or comparable to the weak
boson mass. In all other cases, i.e.\ for relatively heavy WIMPs and for WIMPs
interacting incoherently, the indirect method will be competitive or superior,
but it is, of course, held hostage to the successful deployment of high energy
neutrino telescopes with effective area in the $\sim10^4$--$10^5$~m$^2$ range
and with appropriately low threshold. The rule of thumb is that a kilogram of
germanium is roughly equivalent to a $10^4$~m$^2$ neutrino telescope, although
the signal-to-noise is, at least theoretically, superior for the neutrino
detector. The energy resolution of the neutrino telescope may be exploited to
measure the WIMP mass and suppress the background. A kilometer-size detector
probes WIMP masses up to the TeV-range, beyond which they are excluded by
cosmological considerations.
