Forum Moderators: open
1) If you would like to see a list of related topics. For example, if you are planning a trip to Hawaii, I believe you will find a nice selection of categories if you visit the directory here:
[directory.google.com...]
It lists by island as well listing important areas for planning the trip including parks, wineries, lodging and tour operators. This page helped lead me to other related topics. I might turn around and use the Google search to find "Hawaii wineries" because the directory listing offered an area that I hadn't considered for my vacation.
2) No matter how many filters Google installs, it seems there are always keywards that get bombed and the result is a bunch of results from similar sites that don't contain the information you need. I won't list the URL, but try searching for "sex" on Google Search and then take a look at the "Adult" category in the Google Directory. HUGE DIFFERENCE.
3) Sometimes you just need an alternate perspective. Google has a specific way showing results based on its algorithm, but sometimes it just doesn't show the information you needed. Maybe you need a list of related topics, but your knowledge of the topic is limited to extent that you have no idea where to even begin. For example, let's suppose you want to learn more about "surgery". By visiting Health > Medicine > Surgery, you'll get a nice list of the different types of surgery in order to narrow your list.
4) Or let's suppose you are clueless on how to spell "Otorhinolaryngology", but you know it is a form of surgery, why not use Health > Medicine > Surgery in the directory?
5) Let's suppose you are not happy with the level of service you are recieving from a company and you want to find a list of competitors. Sometimes the "related sites" search is nice, but at other times the directory search is better. Just type in the company name in the Directory Search and often the results you need are at your fingertips!
After all the rants I've heard about DMOZ, it still offers help in solving a wide range of problems that even Google Search solves less efficiently. You can knock DMOZ all you want, but here is one person who uses DMOZ all the time!
Or let's suppose you are clueless on how to spell "Otorhinolaryngology"
Or you could use Google: "Did you mean: Otorhinolaryngology"
"surgery". By visiting Health > Medicine > Surgery
Or you could just go to WebMD....
Personally, though I occasionally try to use ODP as a directory, I usually give up pretty fast because there is simply so many useless sites in there. There is no quality control to speak of.
not happy with the level of service..
The problem is, whether you are using Google or ODP to get those results, you still don't know if any of those listed are any better. A good example is webshosting companies. If you look at either one trying to get ratings on company FubarPeach.com, you will find several sites that give you glowing reports.
But, using Google, you can find out - you type in the words "FubarPeach" and "complaints". Lo and behold, you find that not only are there over 3000 complaint messages on various forums, but they are also under investigation by the Florida Attorney general for fraud, and they have 3 website/domains totally devoted to nothing but horror stories about them. (this is a real example, BTW, with name changed to protect the guilty).
peterdavis agrees that Directory results are often better in spammed areas like travel. I believe travel is among the most (if not THE most) purchased item on the internet, so I would say it's a good thing there is an alternative to Google Search.
I agree with rogerd that the addition of PageRank can increase the value of the Directory results.
Windsun, it depends how far off you are on the spelling. Also, what about those situations where the word is on "the tip of your tongue", and you know it's a type of surgery(e.g.). Windsun, I certainly wouldn't make the statement that Directory listing are better than Search listings in all situations, but I think you will agree that there are situations where you can actually get to the information you need faster by having the Directory function available (on Google).
The officially European mirror of the ODP is at [ch.dmoz.org...] and supposedly only a day behind the main site.
Most of the sites using ODP data have data which is months out of date (due to no new RDF, since 5 months ago, and until recently), or many years old (as the site has never bothered to take a new copy).
Sites which appear to be right up to date are often running scripts which scrape the pages from the ODP server in real time, and some of those are responsible for the slow down of the ODP site itself.
>and some of those are responsible for the slow down of the ODP site itself.
I kind of doubt this. A single site "stealth redirecting" a lot of queries would easily show up on the log, and could be fairly easily dealt with. Many such sites have fairly low use themselves, and actually consume less bandwidth asking for pages as needed than they would have downloading the whole RDF weekly.
Caveat: Netscape/ODP technical staff has been known not to tell me everything they know.
Here is an interesting theory:
I'll bet a delay in the Google Search update of 10 days affects a far greater number of search results and users than a 4 month delay in an RDF dump.
