Hey guys, As you know from looking at threads created here at DP, thousands of directories are born every day. What this thread is (or what my goal is), is basically to put the creative minds of the members here at DP to create a new way to drastically modify directories. So, here's my little tid-bit (great or crappy). A directory needs to have user involvement. Directories as we know them today are dead. Few people surf them. So if we can add a sharing aspect to the directory (like hey guys I found this cool site) it adds value to the directory. Anyone have any other ideas? Skinny
I agree - Directories ARE dead. You gotta give the advertiser something more - more context for them to place their links in - deep links into their website - and finally - content that people might actually read.
Thank Phynder, This might seem obvious, but how about we also include rules (no spam sites, good strong content) i.e. NO CRAP. Let's also stick in a review and rating feature to make it even more interactive. Skinny
Haha guess del.ico.us did a very strong spin on things. And they switched from sites to also include pages and blog posts. Skinny
Tagg this over at TechTagg -> http://www.techtagg.com/story/the-web-directory-is-dead and take a look at the interview - in it I talk about my views on a possible evolutionary direction of web directories.
It's true with what you said in that small excerpt, Phynder. All these new directories popping up everyday with the same categories, the same look, the same, well, everything, and nothing to offer other than a base script, to me, imho devalues what a directory is and should be. I've worked on some really slick stuff for my directory. Mother Nature just hasn't been too kind the past month on my dev environment(hint* lightning DOES strike twice in the same spot). Anywho, Once I can catch up with my clientel, I will be putting in a solid effort again to try and finish up my directory and the neat stuff I have in store which only a few trusted DP'ers know of. Rob
The Blog review looks like a good model, but only time will tell if it will work. On a Bot search engine level I don’t see much difference from a directory with unique content and large descriptions and a Blog.
Excellent Rob - I am not saying there is one "true" path for evolving better directories - just that they GOTTA evolve! I will be very interested in seeing your directory once God Chaos stops menacing you.
I agree many directories are dead today. They need to get more user involvement and such. I think alot of the small directories should merge and make a huge outstanding one. But thats my opinion
One difference you may be missing is the fact that blog entries are independent pages. So, it is similar to a large description in a directory - but is not resident on the same page as your competitors. Also, how many directories allow for deep links embedded in your description? If deep links are allowed, then you are correct - but I don't know many that allow links inside your description.
The directory software I use comes with comments "out of the box" and it's great. When you submit a site you can also become a member and from there build your own album of sites = which don't necessarily have to be in the directory. Ratings are pretty standard too. But you're right, keeping a directory fresh and meaningful is really hard. The things I think are important are * not accepting every submission as entered - check, de-spam and edit * actively monitoring categories that are getting big and reworking - even though it may mean editing the titles of some of the the listings * staying up and running over a long period of time - age counts. But what I'd really like to see built into directory software is my xml submission idea to speed things up http://www.itamer.com/automated-directory-submissions/196/
I like the standardized submission format idea sarah, but one of the issues for submitting to multiple directories is duplicate content (using the same description over and over)? Or is it? Looks like you had a good discussion going, then it burned out. Any follow-up since then on the standard format?
I think is bad not to have other site links on the same page it gives context and cross referencing. I can point this site http://www.qualitativesites.com/ that allows deep linking inside descriptions, but not many you are right.
The duplicate content would rely on every directory having the same category structure and the same sort order for listings as well as the same navigation, layout etc. Not a huge risk. Add to that that the directory owner will be editing the submissions and you should get a unique-enough page. I haven't had the time to do much on it but it's interesting that my feed is indexed by Google - I found it one day when I was searching for stuff!
I have to disagree with you about other site links for context - that is the point of having the links in the content. I will be curious to hear what others think. Thanks for the pointer to the directory - they look like they are doing a very good job the links in content!
Touching on the delicious idea, there already are 10s of social bookmarking sites (I call them "tagrectories"), and there is onlywire to help you submit to multiple tagrectories. There is also StumbleUpon which follows a somewhat different model. That's where I see the future.