Thread: DMOZ: The Great Pumpkin

Debra Mastaler recently published an interesting interview with Bob Keating, the Editor-in-Chief of DMOZ.

The results of the interview are posted at DMOZ: A Solid Directory Or The Great Pumpkin Of Search?

If you're still looking at DMOZ as a potential promotion tool, this interview is worth reading.

Will,
Nice post. I think your previous comments on DMOZ maintaining the customer service level of Google (ie none to minimal) on feedback for submissions (and relevance) still hold true unless AOL "forces" the community to better interact with site submitters.

Even something like an auto-rejection email with a reason code selected by the editor (one, maybe two more clicks when they reject) would do a lot on this front.
Cheers,
James

Nice article, I must agree Dmoz editors criteria is really weird, I have seen many turnkey websites listed and many quality websites rejected.

Originally Posted by ruben

Nice article, I must agree Dmoz editors criteria is really weird, I have seen many turnkey websites listed and many quality websites rejected.

To tell you the truth, the quality of web site in DMOZ is reminiscent of "old school", or, the original unrefined, early 90's web sites... Things made back when Mosaic and Netscape 1 were popular.

That being said, I don't think editors are admitting site of that caliber and rejecting sites that are, shall we say - MODERN/CURRENT... What you see are sites that were originally placed there way back when, are still online somewhere in cyberspace located at addresses like, http://someobscureISP.com/~myfirsttryatawebsite/mypageaboutbeingadmozeditor/myfriendsIwanttoinclude/andhobbiesthathavenorelavanceanymore

In other words, I question just how "current" DMOZ really is. Does anyone actually ever spend time just searching through it? It will take you about 5 seconds to recognize what I am talking about.

YMMV...

I have always found DMOZ to be useless and highly overrated. You make a brilliant point, Mia and I loved your example of 'someobscureISP' - very accurate! Anyway, the editors don't do a nice job of keeping the quality up and the submissions up-to-date. I don't even bother submitting my sites there anymore because I just don't see the point...

Another example of how out of date and out of touch DMOZ is.

Do a search for "geocities"... They are now defunct, gone, kaput!!!

Result number ONE:

Epinions.com - Yahoo! Geocities - Opinions and reviews about this free web space provider.
-- http://www.epinions.com/cmsw-Yahoo__Geocities Home: Consumer Information: Computers and Internet: Internet: Web Hosting: Geocities (4)

NICE!!!

Look at all the "www.geocities.com/site" pages listed:

http://www.geocities.com/droidmakr/

ON AND ON AND ON....

Get a CLUE DMOZ!!!!

Look at all the dead links. Nice!

What's wrong with pumpkins?

A lot of DMOZ categories don't have editors and are basically frozen.

Btw, the easiest way to get listed in the DMOZ is to buy a domain that's expired and has a listing DMOZ will never know

Originally Posted by bogart

A lot of DMOZ categories don't have editors and are basically frozen.

Btw, the easiest way to get listed in the DMOZ is to buy a domain that's expired and has a listing DMOZ will never know

I wonder if there is any money in selling DMOZ listed domains, now that you mention it. I could make a killing if people wanted to pay just to have a domain listed in DMOZ.

Originally Posted by Mia

I wonder if there is any money in selling DMOZ listed domains, now that you mention it. I could make a killing if people wanted to pay just to have a domain listed in DMOZ.

Sure. That's called a paid review.