The DMOZ is shutting down...

[creativepart]

I got lucky. One of my members was an editor and added my sites to the directory each time I started a new one. Or he did for a while anyway. But, I haven't thought of DMOZ as a "thing" to covet for probably 8 or 9 years. Sometimes when you do a whois check you'll see it as an attribute "Listed in DMOZ: Yes"

 

[yuenmi]

I thought backlinks are important to your SEO presents, so if you don't have these directories anymore, what other options are there other than forums and social media networking?

I'm new to blogging so I'm surprise that DMOZ is closing, considering I was just sending my link for their approval last month, and haven't heard anything from them since.

 

[creativepart]

I was just sending my link for their approval last month, and haven't heard anything from them since.

Even without them closing soon you'd be lucky to ever hear back from them. Some folks like me were lucky and got right in. Others could try for years and never get a response.

 

[cbp]

Even without them closing soon you'd be lucky to ever hear back from them. Some folks like me were lucky and got right in. Others could try for years and never get a response.

Why were you expecting to hear back from them for?

 

[cheat_master30]

And now it's finally happened. The site is completely unavailable at its usual address, with a link provided to an editor run static mirror.

The DMOZ is now gone for good.

 

[ozzy47]

 

[mysiteguy]

Over on WMW they said it's still there and browseable. Only the front page has been replaced.

 

[Alex.]

I was sure DMOZ went into some form of archive mode around 2010. It's not difficult to find something specific these days. I'm surprised directories are still around.

 

[davert]

Here’s a snapshot of what the web looked like in the year 2000: http://dmoztools.net

The directory system really did make sense, if it was kept up to date. If I’m looking for a site that reviews web hosts, and I use Google, I’ll come up with 100 spam sites and the one real site may never appear. A human filtered directory system gets around that. However, they were overwhelmed by two things: hubris and spammers.

 

[Alex.]

Why not use WHT? Hosts tend to get skewered there. There's a lot of forum entertainment there when a host goes on a sporadic whinge binge and can't keep their story straight of why they accidentally wiped their client's accounts.

 

[davert]

I do use WHT but it took a while to weed through the spam and find it! It is indeed entertaining. I actually chose Liquidweb after they had one of their big failures because I liked their response (Liquidweb has had a few epic screwups and each time they list what they will do to prevent it next time. I switched over when my then-current host “with three separate pipes to the Internet” went down for 12 hours, and their phones weren't answered because duh, they used VOIP, and they had no separate status site, ... because though they had three connections, all went through the same hole in the wall, all went to the same routers, and all had the same points of failure!)

 

[mysiteguy]

What does WHT have to do with DMOZ shutting down?

 

[davert]

It was a response to my writing: “The directory system really did make sense, if it was kept up to date. If I’m looking for a site that reviews web hosts, and I use Google, I’ll come up with 100 spam sites and the one real site may never appear. A human filtered directory system gets around that. However, they were overwhelmed by two things: hubris and spammers.”

 

[Jack Ryder]

DMOZ was born in June 1998 as “GnuHoo,” then quickly changed to “NewHoo,” a rival to the Yahoo Directory at the time. Yahoo had faced criticism as being too powerful and too difficult for sites to be listed in.

 

[davert]

Yahoo had faced criticism as being too powerful and too difficult for sites to be listed in.

They also had started charging a few hundred dollars for inclusion reviews, for commercial sites. In retrospect I can understand that! Though I think if it had been, say, $50, it would have more than paid for itself and been less offensive.

 

[Joeychgo]

DMOZ Internet Directory Re-Launches at DMOZLive.com After Unexpected Shuttering by Host AOL

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...xpected-shuttering-by-host-aol-300428754.html

 

[bucket]

how do I get a copy?

 

[davert]

“DMOZ Internet Directory Re-Launches at DMOZLive.com After Unexpected Shuttering by Host AOL”

http://dmozlive.com/Top/Recreation/Autos/Makes_and_Models/DaimlerChrysler

Nice to see they are still up to date! (I believe DaimlerChrysler has been dead for ten years now; it's Daimler and Fiat Chrysler.)

DMOZ is still useful for those wanting to know what the Internet looked like in 2001.

 

[LeadCrow]

I wonder... A directory's benefit is realized when its index is current and accurate.
Between dead sites, outdated metadata/descriptions, changed urls, site merges and fraudulent submissions, there's much to do to restore DMOZ.

 

[davert]

Yup. I have a collection of maybe 250 sites that I go through once every couple of months, and there are always a couple of dead ones. I used to get around 300 submissions of spam sites every month; I had to bypass the interface and edit the text files directly to delete them. DMOZ had its work cut out for it, and blacklisting editors right and left didn’t help.

I will believe it’s really being cared for when DaimlerChrysler, which stopped existing ten years ago, leaves the directory as a category.