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If YAHOO! doesn't think enough of their own directory to feature it in the default search results, it would be very surprising if Google would switch to it.
LookSmart/Zeal seems to contain disproportionate numbers of some commercial advertisers and non-profits/informational sites. Not very comprehensive and not very objective as an informational resource.
That leaves ODP. LookSmart is likely to be an MSN sneeze away from extinction, the YAHOO! directory could be in danger.
Will ODP be the one to outlast them all?
There is a huge different between a non-profit and for-profit business.
In one you have volunteers and relative low overhead and the other paid employees and much more expenses.
It's also quite strange to see Yahoo's listing requests are on the rise, eh... since it's so "devalued"!
still GoGuides and JoeAnt, both of which are spidered
Both have very small data bases to be of any real use (yet) to the user
JoeAnt has only fairly recently been in a form to receive spiders but now does.
GoGuides - yes I agree with you, its frightening (gratifying) how quickly a new site there is spidered, by and appears in, Google
Yep they are pretty small, but seem to be growing at a good clip and are attracting notice day by day.. i don't know if they will be ODP competition - they'd have to outsource for that, but the bang is definitely worth the buck in spidering alone.
You have to ask what their business model is, especially as they claim to be 'independent' and are using volunteers. Banner ads will not pay the bills for long. Is it yet another being set up for future sell out to an ailing portal?
As for JoeAnt [joeant.com], I was suspicious the moment it asked if I could 'dig it' - phony hippies are much worse than the real thing. But it also seems much too clever for its own good; while indicating what gimmicks a site has, there's no interest in information or content.
There's also the small matter of a weird idea of ontology, and a search that does not indicate which categories the results come from, so little help when submiting a site. Won't last, I'll bet!
Back on the ODP - I think it will probably be the last big directory left standing. I honestly cannot see Google going to the expense of starting it's own when they can use ODP for free unless Netscape shuts the doors on it without even attempting to sell it off first.
Given its size, ODP seems to be doing a good job. I think it might be more in danger of corporate egos than anything.
Every directory has to start somewhere. IMO the fact that they are trying to build something worthwhile with unique databases is a noble quest.
My question is "can they ever build those unique data bases into som that is really useful?"
JoeAnt, if you look at their site shows 142 sites added yesterday (a fairly average day in the life of JoeAnt). That might lead to 50,000 sites a year being indexed. Unless they specialise, then they will never have a large enough general data base to attract the casual searcher after information.
GoGuides, selecting a topic like "travel" shows not enough depth (after a year and a half) to be of any real value to the casual searcher.
Both of them need at least 10 times the number of (active) editors to become viable in the long term.
Having said all that, I suspect (having some knowledge of the people involved in both directories :) ) that they are happy with building and more importanltly enjoying building their directories.
Maybe no for long.
;)
Every directory has to start somewhere. IMO the fact that they are trying to build something worthwhile with unique databases is a noble quest.
I do agree, fwiw, but it's a hard world, and that's just not enough. You can spot the signs early on; I have much more respect for those that learn from others' mistakes - there's really no need to repeat them!
ODP is much more likely to be challenged by a specialized directory that expands sideways, than an upstart taking it head on, however enthusiastic and ambitious its owners.
That's assuming they don't have rich pals!
But having said that, getting the software right could mean a major step forward - and from the outside, Goguides works very smoothly. But, not having the dot com not only deprives them of visitors, it will actually put people off returning - they'll be forever associated with The Cancer of The Web [pop up boxes]. And if you doubt that, talk to anyone not involved in web sites for a living!
By this I mean that I would rather have a category listing a dozen high quality sites, with good descriptions, than a complete category of 50 sites including some dodgy less useful sites that may waste my time when looking for information.
A minor example of an improvement over DMOZ is the Google version of the ODP. There they rank sites according to their PageRank. This of course puts dead sites to the bottom of the list and more "popular" sites to the top. Although PR is a dubious measure of quality, at least it is a value-added feature and more useful than an alphabetical listing for many types of search.
I personally see Yahoo's latest change as a prime example that the directory model isn't cost-effective, at least global directories. Many people attest to the success of theme'd directories covering topics very in depth, but the model of a big directory containing information about all of the web - dunno.
I do think DMOZ will be around for a while based on the number of volunteers they still have and continue to enlist every day.
I do think DMOZ will be around for a while based on the number of volunteers they still have and continue to enlist every day
I agree that DMOZ will be around for a while. However although they do continue to enlist volunteers every day (makes it sound very militaristic that analogy) they are not enlisting enough to hold or reduce the queue of unreviewed. Last figure I saw was 1.4 million unreviewed, and there are 3.8 million reviewed sites.
And as DMOZ have the most (by far) volunteer editors, it would appear the JoeAnt, GoGuides et al stand very little chance of ever becoming comprehensive all purpose directories.
What seems increasingly likely, is Yahoo! retiring hurt, (ie abandoning its directory) and ODP imploding (if AOL-T-W don't pull the plug first). :(
With no natural successor. :( :( :(
I really hope that ODP gets its act together, but I suspect the clock is ticking, and internal morale really ain't high, in fact I can't recall a less 'open' period (over some three years). It's "heads down and slog away" - one of the most common Meta Mantras these days is 'back to work' - followed by 'Isn't there some more useful way to spend editing time'. Frightening; I think the volunteer thing gets forgotten at times.
I donīt think "challenging" is the issue here. No with a OPEN directory. Improving it, using is foundation is much more likely to happen soon.
;)
