Yahoo Directory is closing at the end of the year. See: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2688...ew-year-by-killing-its-website-directory.html Just another sign the directory industry is all but washed up. People wasting their time trying to get links in directories need to use their time doing more productive things. The only thing worse than trying to get directory links is creating new directories.
My understanding is they are just rolling it into something else. I don't think their move here is indicative of the industry as a whole. Yahoo started out as a directory service and always charged (and charged a high price at that) for that service. They were more like a white pages for the internet as well as a portal, which their search remains as to this day. Paying for a listing in Yahoo's directory as not about "trying to get links", it was about getting found in their own SE and driving traffic. People who list in smaller niche' directories are not all looking for link juice, pr, etc.. they are looking to get FOUND. The directory industry is not "washed up", it is just evolving, ever changing and the directories that have evolved are proving that by continuing to see a consistent flow of new submissions. Yahoo is no exception to that evolutionary chain.
The overall strategy and vision of online marketing as a whole is evolving. Yahoo! has been researching, creating new products, and killing existing products (including several of their new ones) for the last few years as a part of their new strategy (or possibly as a means of FINDING a new strategy and gaining ground in an increasingly competitive and crowded market). Follow their lead...evolve....keep looking for something new, and don't be afraid to change your personal strategy to meet the changing wants and needs of your users. Don't panic. Just be ready for "what's next."
I don't understand why you would kill something that makes money unless they intend to do something else. It cannot take more than one person to manage and run the entire Yahoo Directory.
End of the year? It's been down for more than a week now. Interestingly, there was a news story just a few moments ago about a possible acquisition of AOL by Yahoo, which would make Yahoo the owners of DMOZ.
You've never done it? When I was 6, I had a lemonade stand that was making what I then considered to be "good money" because it was ideally located. I closed it down to sell "Garbage Patch Kids" cards when they first hit the market and made my business mobile....I've been iterating ever since. I'm as puzzled (and anxious) as anyone about Yahoo!'s confusing new strategy and what they might be doing next...maybe it's something, maybe it's nothing, but just like anything else in this industry, I keep my ear to the wire and evaluate things as they come. Change opens doors to new opportunities...in one form or another.
There was also talk about Yahoo wanting to get back into the search engine game, with a focus on mobile search.
if WebDirectory reviews is correct and AOL is acquired by Yahoo, then that might be the end of the open directory/Dmoz......which would be a real trajedy and I hope doesn't come to pass. I also just checked and the yahoo directory is up and running, and I even used it seveal times this week so I am not sure what WD Reviews is talking about when he says it was down the last week... I think yahoo directory is still a valued resource and someone should buy it and maintain it.......but get rid of the dead links please, there's so many of them
I thought I was fairly clear as to what I was talking about. I haven't been able to connect to it for over a week, and I have tried it on a few different computers and connections, and have heard from several others who have also not been able to connect to their directory, although I have no trouble connecting to Yahoo's main domain or any of their other products. In fact, I began asking about it long before they announced that they were closing it. I agree that it's a shame to lose the Yahoo! Directory, and hope that someone will buy it but suspect that Yahoo will shut it down rather than allow someone else to take it over.
The mother of all directories has closed, R.I.P. On the other hand the directory industries itself is not dead, yesterday's concept might be dead or not, that depends on many levels. Because yesterday's concept solely relied on search engines such as Google and as we know Google no longer puts that much weight on directories anymore, then what's the point? I guess Yahoo thought that too, but Yahoo was quick to drop a part of them that what once made them for what they are today, they could have just let it be hovering in web space, then again they probably did not want to distract that part of product that has no more relevance which might mislead people and I guess I can see why they did.
I find the merger talks with AOL interesting. It seems to me that Yahoo! has been having an identity crisis for years. They essentially stood still while Google and Bing took over search. Seems like they are turning themselves into an informational, news, entertainment sort of site. I never used the original AOL but it seems like that was what they were like in the early days too. Visit the front page. Check out the amount of real estate dedicated to searching the WWW and the amount of real estate dedicated to news and other stuff. I find myself hitting their homepage during the day for a quick overview of the day's news. I could deal without all the Hollywood bimbo reports but it is fun now and then to read stuff like the 88 year-old restaurant reviewer that's got folks talking.
I think that directories are going to have to reinvent themselves in order to survive on into the future; they may have to become something more than catalogued lists of websites. Some of them are doing that with informational pages, genuine site reviews, blogs, and other resources.
In the early days of public access to the Internet, I lived in a part of Texas where AOL was pretty much the only option, and it was very easy for people to get wrapped up in all that AOL had to offer. At that time, they had their own AOL-hosted websites, chat rooms, forums, games, and pretty much everything that most people are looking for, and a lot of people didn't see any reason to venture out into the larger Internet. In fact, a lot of people didn't realize that AOL wasn't the Internet in itself. Besides the talk of an acquisition of AOL by Yahoo, there were stories of Yahoo wanting to get back into the search engine game. Still, it's sad to see the Yahoo! Directory go away.
I don't know why. Seems very easy money for yahoo. Did google paid yahoo to do it? Anyway my listing there go away .............
Yes, that is odd. I haven't been able to connect to it since September 22, and still can't. But others can. It has been brought up in several places, and I am by no means alone among those who have been unable to connect to it, and have never had trouble connecting to it before. Some people can connect it, and others can't. I can still connect to its main domain or any of its other domains but the directory is unresponsive.
It seems that it is still visible to USA visitors. I have tried with USA proxy and I see it but from my country no