Genie - 5:55 pm on May 10, 2004 (gmt 0)

>no longer listing ODP sites preferentially in SERP

It never did. Or let's say there is no generally accepted evidence that it did. Google has stated over and over that it treats a link from Dmoz in exactly the same way as any other link.

Because lots of other sites use copies of the Open Directory, one Dmoz link generates a lot of other links. Naturally that gives a boost to PR.

But Dmoz is not the only link that spawns offspring. Yahoo has versions of its directory for different countries. So one link in Yahoo can yield a bunch of backlinks.