StuffOfInterest - 2:42 pm on Jan 17, 2008 (gmt 0)

After having a site left waiting for three years to be listed in DMOZ, and having much more respect for Google's technical prowess, I'm left wondering why Google is still dependent on an outside group after so long. There has been no shortage of discussion over the years regarding the problems with DMOZ, not the least of which being the lack of transparaency. Many of the operating practices and behavior seen in DMOZ appear to be counter to Google's.

Past experience indicates that Google could come up with their own directory which would outshine DMOZ. Key to this has to be transparency. Let people know where their site stands in regards to listing. Let site owners control their listing. Google already has facilities in place to let people demonstrate that they own a site. Once that ownership is demonstrated, let the owner see where their site stands for being listed and let them update their own listing. Many of the complaints of DMOZ would go away if it wasn't such a black hole of information.

Has anyone seen indications from Google as to why they haven't gone this route?