Skrentablog

What's the value in the ODP anyway? Seems to me that the improvements in search technology over the past few years have rendered it obsolete anyway.

Skrenta
I am interested in starting a big directory like Dmoz (but not like Dmoz)

I have already created more than 1125categories

at www.annexagain.com

and you can see this here at www.annexagain.com/1125.html

also I am working on to make it as static html pages
I have also a started a thread

here
at forums.digitalpoint.com

and most of the replies I got there was negative

But I want to continue the project

Also I want some suitabel suggestions from you
also some support as you can tell ODP editors to
switch over to my site

I am creating static html pages via it since I do not have the resources to take a deciated server for it

Also I would be creating static html pages via php script so the php pages would be actually replaced by a static html pages but add url pages will be in php and it would run on a database

so I would be minimizing the load on server

Als editing will be easy and also if a new URL is added I would spider the site via my search engine to see if there are any new links added

If any was added I would type the page url on the browser some thing like www.annexagain.com/1168.html

and save it in the appropriate category name and upload it to the server

I want you to post in there and to spread the word among ODP editors so they could help me a lot

and also since the load on the server would be minimun there would b no chance of a crash like Dmoz experienced so I want you to spread the word among ODP editors

I would first first create 10,000 categories and that means 10,000 pages and then I would visit these 10,000 pages and save them as static html pages (.html)

and then I would upload these pages to different folders like www.annexagain.com/India/

and by then 10,000 pages would have more than 490,000 categories for 49 top countries using the web

and the editor login and editing would be depend on php

Now I want you to post in forums.digitalpoint.com as I could get support from there and also to spread the word among ODP editors so they can assist me in adding categories and other work

I will tell you again since I the directory apages would run on static html page there would be no problem as I can even host on shared hosting like servage.net

And I hope you would help me in this regard and reply to me vai Email

Best regards
Ramanean
Indianwebdirectory.info
Bigoole.com
Annexagain.com

AOL should shut DMOZ down because of the legal problems they face because of the adult listings, with NBC Dateline's focus on internet predators, DMOZ porn listings make visible AOL's conflict of interest in selling porn filtering software to parents.

To lose a database is sin number 1, but a database that included tons of editor affiliate links and links of those who bribed editors to get in is not worth much in the first place.

AOL search should simply sell DMOZ or convert it to a local search database and dump all porn listings if they know what is good for them!

I was the first to call for AOL to fire all the editors and replace them with automation, this may be the first step in the process that in the end will clean up the brand and make it relevant in the marketplace.

My thoughts on ODP have evolved a lot since our original dislike of the service and the way it evolved in practice.

No, I don't really go back on my dislike of that practical reality of it, and I actually think starting it again would be a bad idea - I think this is the kind of stuff that works best (and this is increasingly proven) in deep verticals, rather than trying to amass everything.

Then again, Wikipedia and Digg are having their heyday right now.

What ODP did was give us a starting point for key debates about inducements to voluntary rating, editing, and "ontologizing" online. That kind of activity has definitely not gone away, but as another poster suggests, today we have a more sophisticated view of how to do collaborative filtering. If ODP got us 2% along the path of a platform for collective wisdom and a "third voice" in rating particular websites, many of the other services and features out there today have us maybe 4-5% along that path.

Did someone say search is still in its infancy?

Andrew

I personally agree with you Rich. I used to be a lowly editor at the ODP at one of its Regional Categories. Its time for the ODP to say goodbye. The big categories cannot be handled with a small amount of editors. Lies and deception are still rampant. Its time for a new one. I have presented a project to a couple of search engines and maybe it might be of interest to you too. We can build a new one with a new concept. I can be contacted at my e-mail address or at Digital Point Forums as popotalk.

DMOZ would be a more appropriate acquisition for ASK.com - with their 'EXPERT RANK' technology emphasis

Ask would lose all credibility with me if they bought DMOZ and incorporated it directly into their ranking technology. They are supposed to be a disinterested third party.

So it's about time to 'create derivative works from'

http://dmoz.org/license.html

Basic License. Netscape grants you a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, modify and create derivative works from, and distribute and publish the Open Directory and your derivative works thereof, subject to all of the terms and conditions of this Open Directory License. You may authorize others to exercise the foregoing rights; provided, however, that you must have an agreement with your sublicensees that passes on the requirements and obligations of Sections 2 and 4 below and which must include a limitation of liability provision no less protective of Netscape than Section 6 below.

Hi Rich,

Thanks for explaining to us what's been going on with the demise of DMOZ. I can't believe that AOL really blew it again so badly. It seems as though AOL's been not the neglected stepchild, but more so that irritating kid on the playground that always gets in the way when the big kids want to play ball.

Your call for a new sort of directory is both insightful & important. Can a wiki-style directory really pull it off though? What sort of entity can really negotiate the altruism that made DMOZ popular at its inception and the business-savvy required to make it really successful (as you put it well). I don't think a non-profit can fit that bill. Perhaps a W3/Wiki/Digg combobulation?

What wonderful food for thought...

All ODP really needs is a different model for how the directory is populated. Offering a link maintenance service, free to websites, with a licensing agreement that allows ODP to incorporate some of those link lists into their directory, will increase the number of "volunteers" to edit the directory.

Right now, ODP has too small an editorial staff to effectively catalog the web. At the same time, there are thousands of lists maintained by personal and commercial websites, that can fill in the gaps that ODP has in their directories. All ODP has to do is tap into those existing links.

There is a value in human indexing of the web. When I picked up the Corel Painter category, it had been dead for years with a no longer working link to Corel for a version that was two behind the latest one. Other sites on the net didn't have significantly better links. The best I found didn't have more than 20 tutorial links. I searched through thousands of Google listings to come up with a hundred useful tutorials. Without having a human being highlight the useful links, many of the ones I found would have remained lost on the net and not have been available to Painter users.

The issues I have with ODP are:
- An annoying delinking editorial review process (site listings, that don't 100% follow their style guidelines are temporarily removed from the directory until they are corrected).
- Moving links to what another editor considers a more appropriate category. I don't mind a Painter link I found being copied to another location, but I do resent having it deleted from Painter simply because it contains information about other programs or subjects.
- Not allowing more freedom to create categories so that the listings aren't a huge alphabetical listing.
- Not allow ranking of sites by value (other than one or two "cooled" sites.

Excepting Nullsoft[makers of winamp], i doubt if any other company survived after being acquired by AOL. Historically AOL is known to acquire and just ignore them.
Remember the old news/rumour that AOL was to acquire Redhat... and how the tech community reacted to it on slashdot?

It's definitely worth working on a new directory or even revive the existing DMOZ as suggested by a few above. But relying on DMOZ would eb scary going forward. Hmmm

DMOZ had its time and influence in the past and it's time to say bye. What is the point of a human review that simply summarizes a website with a description such as: "Sells X and Y"?
I have always felt the editors, as a whole, do not have credentials as experts nor do they list useable descriptions as noted above. Google et al have sufficient expertise to catalog the web so "human reviews with ineffective descriptions" are efforts in futility.
The smart money would attempt to consolidate as many smaller SE's as possible - do we really need more then Google, Yahoo and MSN?

With all the insightful and well informed comments being made I hate to just rank on DMOZ but I sincerely hate it. If you are in a catagory without an editor you are dead! If you need to update a URL forget it. DMOZ seems to crow that it may never do anything about listing or updating your site and if you don't like it take a flying leap.

I have never liked the Yahoo "we'll edit your site like we want to" so shut up and live with it. It's not really that bad, of course, but mistakes happen and good luck trying to fix them. For some reason I show up in the Canada directoty for Yahoo. Why? Beats me.

Give me bots and automation anyday. Kill the humans!