I was communicating with the owner of Dirjournal (DJ) who wrote an article about directories being penalized and referenced and old video (see below) where Matt Cutts says Google will reduce the Toolbar PageRank of directories that are engaged in bad practices like paid links accompanied by virtually accepting any link. One of the points DJ brings up is that Google maybe penalized 20% of directories but 80% are still doing just fine. Therefore, DJ makes the case that Google will sweep through and get another 20%, but others maybe even some not playing by the rules, will be just fine. However, let's not miss this point made by DJ: "The older, more established directories that have always been selective about only linking to real businesses – and those that have quality incoming links because they publish original, quality content, are unlikely to be devalued by Google." Now what I am finding to a degree is that even though Google is not adjusting pagerank for some directories, the benefit of being listed in some of these high pagerank directories is almost nil. On the other hand, directories that have a good editorial process tend to also provide links that help in rankings, even some of the lower pagerank directories. When a directory is "littered" with junk, and mostly just paid links, I believe the benefit is much less than people might think, even with a high pagerank. What do you think? And here is Matt Cutts talking about it: !