Zeal is to close

[Genie]

The announcement was made by Looksmart on Monday that Zeal is to close on 28 March.

[martinibuster]

That's a shame and a terrible waste of a good resource.

Looksmart could have sought an investor or to help set it up as an independent non-profit that could survive on it's own.

Why let it die? Would Looksmart rather let it disappear so it doesn't compete with FURL?

So many people have put a lot of work into that directory. It's sad news indeed.

[Chico_Loco]

One word: Wasters

[mack]

Pretty much sums up Looksmart.

Mack.

[dt1961]

Hopefully DMOZ will close soon too.

[rbacal]

Does anyone know whether this will affect other Looksmart properties, like its directory, or findarticles?

[beren]

This is sad.

[joeking]

Why just close it? Seems weird. Can't say I used it much despite being a Zealot myself.

[Wlauzon]

I posted the message here that was sent to all Zealots explaining the move, but it was deleted by admin. You can probably find a copy of it on the Zeal boards.

[KevinC]

ya really lets be honest, while we all made sure we were listed in the directory - I can't think of any possible situation when I would actually look for something on Zeal.

[evo81]

I feel sad for the people that put a lot of time and effort into that directory. I only signed up on zeal the other day, waste of time.

[twist]

I spent the time taking their test. I then spent the time finding the correct category. I tried adding my website. It said pending. About 6 months of pending and then I go back and it says I have to take their test again and it still didn't add my website. Goodbye and good riddance.

DMOZ, took a few days.

[Matt Probert]

I can't see any purpose to Zeal. Indeed I had never heard of it prior to this announcement, and I can't say I shall miss it.

Matt

[Erku]

This is not good PR for Looksmart, using people's resources and then close it.

[angiolo]

Why to close?

They could sell a site having Page Rank 8!

[martinibuster]

I found their test to be a great boot camp for people who wanted to submit sites to DMOZ. That's where I sent everyone who wanted to learn the basics.

If you could pass their test then it's likely you you were better for it and could craft a decent DMOZ submission.

The categories didn't seem to have any PR to speak of, so that's probably why it wasn't too high up on the radar for some people. If it had PR in the cats I'm sure more would have known about it.

It used to be a good for getting a site into the MSN/Looksmart index at one time- as long as you didn't get it mixed up with the Inktomi feed (remember those days?).

[Idris]

I quite liked Zeal, though it was quite hard to get to a stage where you could become a very active member (since it was dependant on submitting sites). Still it was one of a number of places I submitted to whenever launching a new site.

It's been crippled for a while now (a few things broke which caused the whole system to fall apart) so it being discontinued isn't that much of a surprise since there was no apparent concern that the whole thing was grounded.

[IanKelley]

They could sell a site having Page Rank 8!

Indeed, they could sell it or do a variety of other things that would make it un-necessary to close it.

But if LookSmart did that it would be an intelligent business decision which would seriously jeopardize their standing as the fool in the PPC search engine court. ;-)

[podman]

If you could pass their test then it's likely you you were better for it and could craft a decent DMOZ submission.

I never thought of that - perhaps you are right. I went through the whole Zeal thing to become an editor there, and maybe listed 5 sites, got bored and applied to DMOZ a month later. My first application got accepted - which surprised me.

[twinsrul]

Zeal has gone the way of Grub, the distributed computing project that allows you to crawl and index the web from your desktop in order to help improve web search. It's really a shame, but inevitable nonetheless. What is LookSmart doing right these days?

[beakertrail]

Never was a big fan of Zeal but it is a waste.
I'd rather dmoz goes - with all its corruption and the emphasis placed on it drives me a bit nuts.

[photo200]

DMOZ - SUCKS!

[simey]

agreed!

[BaseVinyl]

This is not true. There was no announcement. It is a bad april fools joke. Why such false rumors are allowed to be posted here is beyond me.

[Iguana]

BaseVinyl

are you being serious or have I missed your joke?

the 'rumour' was started on zeal.com (check out their forums) -

Dear Valued Zealots and Contributors,
...
On March 28, 2006 Zeal will no longer be available. We are not selling Zeal.com and have no future plans for it at this time.

If this was a joke by one of the Looksmart staff then surely someone in authority would have removed it by now

[podman]

I'd rather dmoz goes - with all its corruption and the emphasis placed on it drives me a bit nuts.

I hope you realize that your post and my inevatable reply , keeps the emphasis on DMOZ (not what you want]. Zeals's demise also adds to it.

As years go by, the demise of DMOZ has been predicted, and the Zeal model claimed to be a better model. Survival of the fittest.

[Rosalind]

This forum message on Zeal was posted by an editor who signed up on March 17th, someone who has not posted anything else. It doesn't seem all that authoritative.

[Iguana]

But doesn't an Editor mean Looksmart staff? The volunteers are Members, Contributors, Zealots, and Expert Zealots.

[Philosopher]

Yeah...judging by the postings in the forum, it definitely looks legit and as if it has been expected for some time.

[lgn1]

They still let you sign up, so you can be shutdown in 4 days.

Looks very much like a bad joke to me.

If they were going to close in 4 days, it would be all over the website, with appoligies and a thank you to all the zealot members, not a buried FOAD response.