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I wish Google drop DMOZ

Discussion in 'ODP / DMOZ' started by tivnet, Sep 1, 2004.

  1. #1
    I truly believe that DMOZ is a dead horse. Nobody needs it as a directory - but everyone submits and needs to "kiss butts" of editors - just to get initial PR4 from Google.

    And Editors just like to show everyone that they rule. Look at this thread, for instance:

    http://resource-zone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21896

    Looks like someone (guess who) is promoting one commercial site in that category - and keeps other 10 junk sites just to show that "other sites are there, too"...

    I would like Google to drop DMOZ and open it's own directory, with paid inclusion. Imagine your local Yellow pages managed by DMOZ guys? Won't find any plumber there... Except for one, who happened to be Editor's cousin...
     
    tivnet, Sep 1, 2004 IP
  2. mopacfan

    mopacfan Peon

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    #2
    How would it be different from Yahoo then? And how much manpower would it take to make it happen? What about non-profit or personal sites? Who determines commerial vs. non-commercial content? I'm sure they've thought about it and probably decided it's not worth the hassle.
     
    mopacfan, Sep 1, 2004 IP
  3. Smyrl

    Smyrl Tomato Republic Staff

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    #3
    I personally like the idea of human editors reviewing a web for inclusion.

    Shannon
     
    Smyrl, Sep 1, 2004 IP
  4. l234244

    l234244 Peon

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    #4
    I used to be an editor and was treated exactly the same way, I edited a category that had submission back for 2 years. I spent 3 months cleaning it up and then they deactivated my login. No notice, no warning, nothing. I hope there is a meta that visits digitalpoint and reads this and pm's me because all I get at resource-zone is "where not allowed to discuss reasons". My answer is why the hell has nothing changed to my category since? I asked for my category to be checked whist I was an editor 2 weeks before i got kicked out and nobody replied to my thread, so I pm another more experienced editor to have a look and he told me everything looked fine. Then all of a sudden I cant log on? I believe google will drop DMOZ sooner rather than later, google will not want to associate itself with a directory which is poorly run by a bunch of meta editors on a ego trip.
     
    l234244, Sep 1, 2004 IP
  5. tivnet

    tivnet Peon

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    #5
    It could be better, because Yahoo is far from being the best directory, too.

    What's wrong with having Yellow pages - like directories?

    a) local listings
    b) every business or person included once
    c) pay for bold listings, or pictures
     
    tivnet, Sep 1, 2004 IP
  6. schlottke

    schlottke Peon

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    #6
    DMOZ, even though my pages get listed quickly, does truely have some dumbasses running portions of it. Thats what you get when $$ is involved, though.
     
    schlottke, Sep 1, 2004 IP
  7. hurricane_sh

    hurricane_sh Well-Known Member

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    #7
    I totally agree, dmoz is a joke to me, 6 months to add a site!! What do they do with the site, duplicate it?
     
    hurricane_sh, Sep 1, 2004 IP
  8. tivnet

    tivnet Peon

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    #8
    Look at the profile of an editor. You may find that the same person is editing food, horseback riding, Chinese horoscope and Romanian sign language... And - when you look at his resume - you suddenly discover that s/he is a freelance programmer and SEO...

    BTW, I think About.com was a nice thing. Google has it now, right? Why still DMOZ then?
     
    tivnet, Sep 1, 2004 IP
  9. ViciousSummer

    ViciousSummer Ayn Rand for President! Staff

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    #9
    Yep, DMOZ is a total joke...I edit a lingerie category there and after I spent a lot of time cleaning up my category, I applied for another category. I was told that my category was not up to par, I went back to see why & it was because a couple of meta editors did "drive-by" editings in my category (which they obviously knew nothing about). I've seen so many posts where meta editors are just flat out rude to people. It's really sad because the concept of DMOZ is really good.
     
    ViciousSummer, Sep 1, 2004 IP
  10. schlottke

    schlottke Peon

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    #10
    I agree - I stopped working on my catagory after being harrassed about "self-promotion" of a site that wasn't even mine.. go figure.
     
    schlottke, Sep 1, 2004 IP
  11. DarrenC

    DarrenC Peon

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    #11
    DMOZ is a joke.

    As soon as Google dumps it people will not bother with it. The only people who visit DMOZ are webmasters and SEO's trying to get listed on it, its a nonsence directory, with muppets running it.
     
    DarrenC, Sep 2, 2004 IP
  12. Geir

    Geir Berserker

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    #12
    I agree that DMOZ is useless from a regular users point of view.

    They have never cared to include any of my sites, so I hope that Google will drop them and they eventually become useless from a SEO point of view as well.

    :) Geir
     
    Geir, Sep 2, 2004 IP
  13. disgust

    disgust Guest

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    #13
    google will never "drop them"

    but they also don't get special treatment from google. a dmoz page is just like every other page. so why's it so important to get?

    because the data is copied over to THOUSANDS of different sites. all dmoz data is available for free.

    it isn't that google "weights" dmoz pages highly- they're under the same ranking algos everyone else is- it's just that because dmoz data can be copied for free, thousands of sites use it, and it's a way to essentially get thousands of links via one application.

    if you can get thousands of links elsewhere, you don't need dmoz at all.
     
    disgust, Sep 2, 2004 IP
  14. Geir

    Geir Berserker

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    #14
    I was thinking of Google dropping DMOZ as provider for their own directory. I was not really hoping for Google to remove all DMOZ related pages for their index.

    My thinking is that the google directory probably see more traffic than the actual DMOZ. Also, once googfle realize DMOZ is crap and stop using this directory, they may very well devalue DMOZ and all its clones in the SERP as well and/or reduce the pagerank for these pages.

    :) Geir
     
    Geir, Sep 2, 2004 IP
  15. tivnet

    tivnet Peon

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    #15
    Will it really be copied?

    Here is my version of DMOZ copy: Business Web Directory
    I did it two years ago. The dmoz site is very slow, so any time my script manages to pull their page - it writes a cache file, and next time it uses the cache. As a result, my DMOZ data is old, and I am not going to update it.

    I am pretty sure that many of DMOZ copies have old data, too.

    Take, for instance this site: Original Abstract Paintings. It's listed in DMOZ - but look who has copied the data? Almost nobody:
    http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=linkdomain:www.lena.karpinsky.com&dups=1
     
    tivnet, Sep 3, 2004 IP
  16. Weirfire

    Weirfire Language Translation Company

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    #16
    DMOZ is very frustrating

    I asked on resource zone about a week ago the status of my site and 1 editor said something about his connection and that he'd check it later. Still no reply about the status of my application and no-one is viewing my thread now because he's already replied.
     
    Weirfire, Sep 3, 2004 IP
  17. mopacfan

    mopacfan Peon

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    #17
    It's not that old. I just checked and an edit I made a few months ago shows up in your site's search.
     
    mopacfan, Sep 3, 2004 IP
  18. tivnet

    tivnet Peon

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    #18
    I cannot cache all possible search strings a visitor can type in - in advance. However, if you browse the categories - the links are old.

    Your search, BTW, should be cached now - so next visitor repeating the same search will see your site. You are in cache, forever :)
     
    tivnet, Sep 3, 2004 IP
  19. kuhleen

    kuhleen Peon

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    #19
    the principle of dmoz is good, and i think it will stand over time. The proof that it is not so bad as some of you say is that it is still there after so much time. If there were some super-tekki way of creating a dmoz-like structure automatically, the project would have vanished since long time now.
    dmoz is slow at google, so i guess google failed to give it the appropriate value. with its latest redesign it also removed directory listings from the result pages, so the dmoz importance for google goes down. However this does not mean that dmoz would be as bad as you say, it just means that google found no way of making money out of it.
    I guess, as dmoz is human driven, the opinions about it have to be subjective as well
     
    kuhleen, Sep 3, 2004 IP
  20. msaad

    msaad Peon

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    #20
    Kuhleen, welcome to the forums..
    I bet you have never tried to submit a website to DMOZ! They have become unbearable really.. You submit a perfectly relevant and good site, and they will still reject it without any kind of notification, leaving you puzzled for months

    The editors simply think... "Does this bastard think he is gonna get a free link to his site or what? Let's give him some hard time!" :) or something like that..

    Ok.. I'm just kidding.. I have to add that not all editors are like that... But at least most of them are!
     
    msaad, Sep 3, 2004 IP