Directories are still going strong for the foolish people who still think PR matters though it has not been updated in a year. As long as these people stay stuck in the past, there will always be a market for ancient seo techniques.
If you said Directory for the foolish then what about people after high PR blog for blog posting? sometimes ancient ways better than modern way and you know it.
The web directory business is now obsoleted I am afraid. The web directory can still be useful in a way but only best time to use them is if they are your truly last option. The people are starting to look at web directory as the last resort now, starting to focus on paying advertisements more or to sponsor someone's business by paying them to advertise the website or blog. Recently I have paid to sponsor a VRS (video relay service for Deaf or Hard of Hearing people) company that brings in thousands of thousands traffic daily due to the referral by FCC (Federal Communications Commission). If you're looking for a traffic then I suggest to look for to sponsor a company that have a connection or under a governments control such as FCC or others like VRS companies. I am Hard of hearing myself, if you want know some VRS companies to look up to see if you're interested in sponsoring where they'll put up your website banners right at top of their websites which brings in thousands of thousands traffic to you daily let me know by private message.
Assuming the directories in question were specifically authored around PR. The ones that remain were not.
There's still some quality directories around with great editorial standards that continue to evolve, stay fresh and offer a good user experience. They'll do well and carry value for many years. Admittedly though, I rarely see Yahoo and Dmoz appear in search listings these days, which makes me think their thin content prevents them from ranking.
When I read these type of posts I'm under impression that DP community is stuck in 2005. Yes, there are some quality directories that offer information and engage with their visitors(I'm not mentioning links because that's not what the directories for), but unfortunately I haven't seen any on DP. But it doesn't necessarily mean that I've seen every single directory here. I know that my comment is going to piss a lot of people off, especially the directory owners, but that's not my intention. I'm sorry if someone feels offended, but you have to realize that it takes more than a template and bunch of links to create a quality directory. To all directory owners, ask yourself the following question "Would anyone submit to my directory if I don't link to their site or add nofollow tag to their link". If your answer is "NO", then your directory suck. And if there are any directory owners here that disagree with me, I'd like them to list their directory and proudly claim that they run a quality directory.
if you have quality directory and maintain it day to day then its ok .. no one ever use directory for searching. it just work out best to have back links
Web directory business is still on the market but from time after time it is lesser to lesser people appreciate this platform due to other mediums that are more effective as well as usually used by the market field.