Useful for what? You mention PR, I don't know about that. I hope my directory is a useful resource for people looking for Weblogs in a specific category.
of course directories are useful. some are better then others, so it is up to the submitter to research and submit wisely.
Directories are good for webmasters and very useful becuase you can get a lot of links but for end users directories are garbage .
Sometimes I found myself searching directories for certain niche websites that I need. I am not saying that I relay only on those, but at least they gave me an idea. PS: at work, during the night shift when there was not so much work to do, I was playing arcade games on mikes's ZD
Directories were useful long before Google page rank existed and are still useful today. For those that were submitting to directories only for the purpose of increasing their PR, Yes they are no longer useful for that and you should never have used them for that purpose to begin with.
Beyond the obvious "a link is a link", I use web directories to refine my SERPs. Find keywords where you rank on page 3 or 4 of google and then get some directory links with those keywords and you'll see your site rise. In addition, there are some web directories out there that will drive traffic to your site.
creative and insightful directories are useful. I wrote over 200 pages of content of a complex subject of probate law even before I created the directory module.
No, haven't been for many years. They had their time and place, so did 8-tracks. Most of us have moved on. Those with directory links in their sigs maybe haven't quite yet. Tom
They're still useful, but I believe Google is devaluing them, so it probably means that you how to submit to more directories to be efficient.
Yes, directories are still useful. It's a good source of backlinks that can also help to increase our site ranking and pr.
I have some PR 4 sites, under one year old, that rank well for their keywords. Granted they are not very competitive, but the only backlinks they have are from free low PR general directories.
I did an experiment over the last few days. I have 4 web directories, where the homepage PR has dropped to 2 on all of them, and almost all of the inner pages have lost their PR. I created a free blogger blog, and using 1 link from each directory to the blog I was able to get my blog to rank for something not entirely obscure. So Google is still valuing these links, so they are of some benefit.
Good, you can read. But can you produce some proof to back up your statements? I have mine, just PM me for it.