Is ODP still popular for search engines?

no updates by major seach engines for several months

[GreatVista]

Google, Lycos, Excite, Hotbot...they still use the old version of ODP data.

Most people say this is due to the technical problem from the DMOZ side. I would rather believe some big players e.g. google are considering to change their strategy of directory listing. I'm trying to justify their intention with the reasons that 1)like Yahoo! or L$, directory would be a source of $, they don't want to waste it. 2)Open Directory Project is maintained by volunteer editors, it's possible for a very few of them to abuse the directory, which Google is aware of and becoming more serious with.

Could anyone give more information about the current relationship between ODP and the major search engines?

P.S. as mentioned in other threads, I noticed irregular SERPS in Goole direcory. Does this tell sth?

[rfgdxm1]

Problem isn't on the ODP side at the moment. I suspect just laziness on the part of these search engines.

[skibum]

I think even if no search engines used the ODP as their directory (what else would they use?) it would still serve as an important link and a starting pont for a crawl of the web.

[rfgdxm1]

Fair point skibum. The Yahoo directory is less than splendid for that purpose.

[tschild]

My money is on laziness. They rely on the most users not noticing the difference between a recent and a half-year-old copy of the ODP (a pity since the latter will probably have a two-digit percentage of broken links and hijacked domains).

If Google were that keen on making the Google Directory pay they'd add their ads in the directory pages, like they do to the search pages.

BTW the problem is not on the ODP end - the RDF has been published weekly on Wednesday for more than three months now.

[John_Caius]

Dmoz has no technical problems that would stop Google from picking up an up-to-date copy of the directory.

[Powdork]

I can buy cost as a factor but not laziness. Perhaps they just don't see the value of updating something the end user doesn't value.
My bet is on Google coming out with a meta directory in the same sense of a meta search engine. It would be a very searchable database of human edited sites gleaned from trusted international, national, and possibly even local directories.

Or maybe they'll just give the 'Directory' tab to Froogle.

[John_Caius]

[webmasterworld.com...]

[Powdork]

Yeah, I know. Funny, it doesn't look like a meta directory.;)
Guess I lost that bet.