unreviewed - 12:50 am on Jul 24, 2007 (gmt 0)

The holy grail of Google and any system that may wish to compete, is to actually answer the question for a given query. The end game isn’t to provide a list of the best web sites that relate to a keyword, people don’t want the hierarchy … it’s to actually answer the question first and “then” provide a list of citation web sites, just to backup the answer.

Obviously I don’t see much of a future for “any” web site directories, so a more interesting question in my mind is what keeps a community together, one like the ODP that is completely non-profit, on a mission that should be by now, clearly, in doubt. What is the end game or path that keeps such a group going?