DMOZ is the Internet’s largest human edited directory. But the giant is dead long time back. It is quite ridiculous to think why Google still gives so much importance to the DMOZ listing when it is filled with broken, duplicate and promotional links.

The multilingual open content directory owned by Netscape is DMOZ Open Directory Projectmaintained by a large community of volunteering editors. However, there have been huge delays and flaws in approving links. Some webmasters have tried for years in vain to have their genuine websites listed.   Visit some DMOZ categories in random and you can find that almost half of the listed links are broken or contain some unprofessional disorganized sites. How can an editor approve these sites but not allow genuine professional sites even if the correct category is chosen? So does this mean:

  1. The volunteering editors give favoritism 
  2. Some of the editors are also search engine experts who try to have his/her client websites alone listed.
  3. The editor can also reject a site if he/she finds the site to be their personal site competitor.

The above possibilities cannot be ruled out. Yes, there are a large number of editors who practice the ones above. Any webmaster would accept the claim.Reasons for DMOZ being dead include: 

  1. A large number of broken links. Don’t editors check these old links in the categories they maintain?
  2. Multiple submissions. Thousands of websites have multiple listings on DMOZ when DMOZ guidelines clearly states one URL per domain. How did the editors approve? Do they not find out if it was already submitted before approving it?
  3. Large number of promotional sites with promotional words listed. Again, this is against DMOZ guidelines. How come these are approved by editors when we hear stories from webmasters that their genuine websites are not being approved for years?
  4. Editor selection is weird. Existing editors’ come up with weird reasons to reject your application for becoming an Open Directory editor. Interested volunteers have reported that they have been rejected even after following all the rules and guidelines. The rejection mail states no specific reason for rejection.

With internet technology growing in a fast phase, users demand updates every second. DMOZ is old and outdated and does not fit the new internet trend. DMOZ has been killed by slow and greedy editors. It is high time DMOZ goes for a paid editor strategy or a paid & reviewed listing like Yahoo. It is even funny to see Google still giving all the importance to DMOZ by having DMOZ database as the Google Directory.Rumors are that DMOZ might soon be sold to BOTW.org and made into a paid directory. Let’s wait and watch the things which will unfold.


This entry was posted on Sunday, September 21st, 2008 at 5:36 am and is filed under Directories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.