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MSN on DMOZ

what's up?

         

glengara

8:05 am on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



MSN banners are all over DMOZ as well as a changed look.

Have I missed something?

skibum

8:08 am on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Looks like Microsoft bought ODP. So much for Dmoz;) It was nice while it lasted.

Lisa

8:08 am on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



That must be the biggest April Fools Joke ever!

An AOL site that is using Microsoft's name. HA! Do you see Clippy. He pops up on the site.

WOW!

skibum

8:10 am on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



That little popup paperclip dude looks evil.

click watcher

8:13 am on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)



the best LOL

carlwright

10:18 am on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Nearly fell off my chair!

ettore

10:26 am on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Yeah. We sold it.

Microsoft has today announced the acquisition of the Open Directory Project, which will now be called Microsoft Directory Project (MDP). Further name changes will occur, and we expect to see it changed soon to Gates Open Directory (GOD).

The acquisition extends Microsoft's interests in Web directories, creating the first integration of proprietary technologies and community involvement. This is also part of Microsoft's vision to simplify copyright on the Internet by buying all copyrighted material. Once this goal is achieved Microsoft will be the single clearinghouse for all intellectual property, in effect streamlining the current legal bureaucracy surrounding patent and copyright suits by eliminating the need for costly lawsuits.

In a statement Bill Gates said it expected the acquisition to enable Microsoft to increase the sale of its products, outpacing competitors and maintaining its leadership in quality while keeping cost structures flat.

The contributions of the MDP's community will be integrated into the brand new MS Linux OS, and ME Explorer 8.

The MDP technology platform will be used to develop reviews of both commercial and non-commercial websites, but only sites prominently displaying on the homepage the new button "I Love Bill Gates" will be accepted.

A new ranking system has been implemented, which will place at the top of search results sites having the keyword "Microsoft" consistently spreaded throughout the page text, or banners advertising Microsoft products. This new ranking system has been called MPR (Microsoft Page Rank).

Under the terms of the agreement, about 1.4 million shares of Microsoft common stock will be exchanged for all properties, options and warrants of the MDP.

More news can be found in the Press Release [microsoft.com].

In related news, Canada has launced a massive attack on the United States using nuclearized penguins, maple syrup, and foobars.

kitten

10:28 am on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



i think that this is hilarious! terrific april fools joke... i hope! i can't wait til 2morrow to check it out. have any of you guys tried talking to the little 'freaky' paperclip dude. its just scary! 10 out of 10! LOL!

kitten

10:31 am on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



'and on the seventh day...' holy moley! this is for real! what a shocka! nevertheless, should make for an interesting conversation piece...

tigger

10:32 am on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Gates Open Directory

LOL

god bless Bill Gates

electro

10:34 am on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



AAARRRGH!

Hahahahaha, holly goodness! Someone at DMOZ has a MASSIVE sense of humour... I hope! Hahahahaha. April fools day on the internet is fun!

FreeBee

10:36 am on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



> 270 billion unique reboots worldwide!!

Brett_Tabke

10:44 am on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



They had to be hacked - please let it be a hack. If it isn't, it is one of the bigger failures of judgement I've ever seen in awhile.

Liane

10:52 am on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Looks pretty real to me Brett. Whoaaaaaaa!! I wonder how many editors will call it quits and what affect this will have on Google?

Maybe that's why the update is taking so long and why Googleguy has been so quiet? Jeesh ... what next???

Brett_Tabke

10:53 am on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



[dmoz.org...]

There's funny, and then there is just plain...

electro

11:13 am on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Hmmm, do you think someone may take umbrage about all this? This is a fairly intense joke...

Liane

11:50 am on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



On second inspection, I am sure they were hacked. Look at the bottom of the page and you will find: "Copyright © 1999-2002 Bill Gates".

Even Uncle Bill isn't THAT egotistical! Man, had me going for a while. Not funny though!

Brett_Tabke

11:51 am on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Reread ettore's response above.

Liane

11:57 am on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Yeah I read it ... but thought he was just being funny.

ettore

12:01 pm on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Actually, being an April's fool, my intention was to be funny :)

Napoleon

12:43 pm on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)



Funny it was... once I had recovered from the shock. I took the bait well and truly - came straight into WMW from there to see what was going on!

Eric_Lander

2:27 pm on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



...Wow...

Some favorties...
• [dmoz.org...] profile.cgi?editor=billgates
(Look for "Monopolies do it better" at the footer)

• When clippy offers the tip of "**** off"
(Oh yes, there IS a screen grab of that one!)

• "If your windows doesn't work properly, don't blame Microsoft, blame yourself, you Jack***!"

• "Hi I'm Clippy, and Keith Made Me" <-- claiming responsibility for this? Oh no!!!

...Honestly, this is going a bit too far, isn't it?

Macguru

2:33 pm on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I don't know how much money they waisted into this, but I hope they made provisions for legal stuff...

agerhart

2:36 pm on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



They have done quite a bit of work.

Has everyone here taken the time to click through the "tips" section? I am not going to post all of the tips as some of them are pretty nasty, but take the time, it will make you laugh.

Eric_Lander

2:42 pm on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



>>...some of them are pretty nasty...
- Much like Microsoft's lawyers!

>> ...but take the time, it will make you laugh
- So will the legal fees for this trickery!

I'll refrain from posting more... Seems I never get into the deep conversations here lately.. Just these things! ACH!

~ Eric

luckynh

3:19 pm on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



They got me.. lol

More news...

[dirt.netscape.com...]

Still Free?
[dmoz.org...]

agerhart

3:21 pm on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



This press release is in no way true. This isn't even a real press release. The MDP staff appologizes to everyone about everything. This is a bad, bad joke and is not funny in any way. If you laughed, shame on you and shame on us.

EliteWeb

4:35 pm on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



:) Wow, the site is really nasty ugly now though heheh all these cookies are now on my computer ;) they went all out ms style.

marysz

4:52 pm on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I'm not so sure about renaming it GOD? Why not just give the man a crown and be done with it already!

Haven't digested the good and bad of this purchase but does that mean getting into ODP is still free, IF you can find an editor that will even look at your listing. I've had to resubmit listings several times to no avail. And this is for an on-target, high-traffic, extremely relevant site for the categories I submitted to. Plus, I could never get a response as to why the site was not chosen.

Mary

jason

5:11 pm on Apr 1, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



it's a really funny joke, but many sites throughout the web that retrieve ODP from dmoz.org are malfunctioning because of the changed format.

-Jason

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