Quadrille - 3:08 pm on Nov 27, 2006 (gmt 0)

I certainly cannot say you are wrong; but history tells us, right from the early days, that directories were never very good at attracting eyeballs; once SEs reached a certain quality, it was 'game over' for directories in terms of a central (mass audience) web role. Even Yahoo! rapidly acquired bought-in search expertise to beef up its directory results, and we all know how little yahoo! cares about its directory now, even at $200 a pop!

The abuse of directories for indirect benefit (like links) has been a distraction, and has made directories the focus of attention enough to encourage some to plaster adsense all over - but few of them make any money at all, let alone serious money, and those that do make it from webmasters, not from Seekers Of Information - and that can only reduce as the penny drops about link value (or lack of).

I believe totally that directories have a future; but the divide between the Quality Directories and the dross (sorry, but no other word fits the link exchange and MFA directories) is now so wide, that it is clear that the forseeable future has a much smaller place in mind for directories.

The near future is for a handful of general Quality Directories with a unique feature or two, plus quality editing - and for the oft-forgotten niche directories that got overlooked in the stampede!

Longer term ... who knows!