hutcheson - 12:16 am on Jun 8, 2007 (gmt 0)

On the one hand, there is no hard-and-fast rule against dropshippers (by which, I presume, you mean people who don't actually ship, but who take orders for the real shippers.) And in fact, I have listed avowedly-and-honestly dropship businesses.

On the other hand, there are so few dropship sites that ARE listable that I suspect users wouldn't lose much even if there WERE a hard-and-fast rule. (Many such that DO get listed, get listed by deceit on the part of webmasters, often compounded by insufficient research on the part of editors. As you say, it's nearly impossible to recognize such a business from the website.)

The ODP rule is about "unique content." For a product description, "unique content" generally means:
(1) the actual specifications that can ONLY be provided (in any authoritative way) by the manufacturer.
(2) genuine product reviews by genuine, experienced, knowledgeable heavy users of the product, or professionals in a related field.

Anything else--promotional pseudo-reviews, marketing speculation or lies (insofar as there is a difference) doesn't count as content.

Basically, a retailer simply can't get unique content out of product descriptions. He cannot speak with the authoritativeness of the producer, or with the experience-based knowledge of the disinterested user.

A retailer gets listed by unique information about his own services -- what he does with his own hands -- which is what he CAN speak authoritatively (since he is the producer of his own services.) But this route also is barred to most order-takers: telling the truth that they're merely taking orders for someone else's products and services, would be fatal to their business -- like Monty Python's "Whizzo Chocolate" sketch.

So the real perspective, from the perspective of a directory builder, is: reviewing e-tailing sites is EXTREMELY slow per reviewed site (how do you really confirm a site is not just another pretty face for VStore?), and EXTREMELY unproductive per reviewed site (most of the sites ARE just another pretty face for VStore). Hence, editors are strongly motivated to work elsewhere, where work is less painful and more valuable.

Realistically, the tool for quickly weeding out duplicative copies of the VStore catalog with reworked promotional verbiage, hasn't yet been invented. It may be the biggest challenge on the web -- certainly, whoever solves it will be able to offer information of extremely high value to surfers.