Do search engines use links from human edited directorys?

Do major search engines use links from human edited directorys to measure the quality of the site they index.?

I was reading this article from site-reference. http://www.site-reference.com/Search-Engines/5256/index.html . What do you think about this?

 

I believe that one item that would tell you a lot across a data set is the Category. If many directories were, for example, listed a site in Shopping > Tobacco, there would be a high probability the site was about cigarrettes or tobacco products, so directories can be a great way for a search engine to determine the theme of a site.

 

There are some dubious statements (not to mention errors in grammar and diction) in that article but the general point about submitting to directories AFTER first reading the directory rules for submissions is a good one.

 

If they do, they shouldn't really.. I couldn't really use the world quality and human-edited directory in the same sentence. I am sure there are some out there... I am even sure there are some directories that are out there attempting to be directories and not just trying to get people to pay for submissions and/or do the editing for their own submissions.

When I see places like DMOZ having categories that have not been touched in 12-15 months, and others with 50% of the sites not in existance, or I visit around and see how over-worked all these directories are where they have 1000s of backlogged submissions and no time to get to them...

Well I wouldn't put any emphasis on any general purpose directory other than providing a link.