Dmoz Update

New tags showing in Google

[Fiver_321]

This morning - I have noted three of my sites which are in dmoz (placed there after the last rdf dump update by google) are now showing their dmoz tags on google serps.

Interestingly, I note also that some of sites which have been removed from dmoz are still showing their tags.

Also - a third permutation I see is that some of my sites which are in dmoz, and which were placed there at the same time as the first 3 which are showing tags as of today, are NOT showing tags. Even though they reside in the same category.

Anyone else seeing movement? Also, can anyone explain the third permutation (for sure I would like all my tags showing :)

Cheers
Fiver

[kctipton]

I'm an ODP editor and don't have a clue what you're talking about. I don't recall adding tags to sites, sooo could you explain? Perhaps this is a Google topic and not an ODP one?

[Fiver_321]

Interesting.

This is when google reads dmoz data - the google serps are then changed for dmoz listed sites to reflect the directory category they show up in.

I'm surprised nobody is replying to this post - am I missing something? As far as I know its been about 3 months since google read the rdf dump in any manner.

Cheers
Fiver.

[bakedjake]

I'm not seeing it yet.

It's funny, actually... I just did a search for one of our sites by name, and the site came up number one. The page the site is listed on in DMOZ comes up second.

But no Google Directory tag yet for the site. I think Google got the DMOZ page by a crawl, and the RDF read hasn't been done yet (or DMOZ hasn't dumped yet, I'm not sure which).

[rfgdxm1]

>I'm an ODP editor and don't have a clue what you're talking about. I don't recall adding tags to sites, sooo could you explain?

kctipton:

[google.ca...]

Notice that:
Category: Computers > Companies > ... > Microsoft Corporation

In the SERP. I presume this is what he is talking about.

[Fiver_321]

Well this could be interesting, because the 100% fact of this situation is this :-

Google processes PARTS OF THE ODP at different times - NOT all in one dump now.

Wicked. I wonder what the selection process is for deciding how to update is, priority etc.....

Fiver.

[RFranzen]

Google processes PARTS OF THE ODP at different times - NOT all in one dump now.

Fiver,

I believe your premise may be flawed. Based on past observation, Google updates dmoz data in phases:

1) Google Search results reflect recent ODP data ("tags").
2) Google Directory search results reflect recent ODP data.
3) Google Directory catalog pages reflect recent ODP data.

You may be partially correct that phase 1 does not immediately occur as a complete representation of the ODP data being refreshed. If not, my guess is it would happen within just a couple days.

As of this writing, I don't think phase 2 has started. Do a normal Google search of:

* APEC insurance

"Managing Regulatory Change in Life Insurance and Pensions" is one of the results (the third when I searched). I listed this in mid-April, and Google shows the correct ODP category (even though directory.google.com does not yet include the newish category).

If you do the same search at directory.google.com, the listing is not found. And, obviously since the category does not yet exist at directory.google.com, phase 3 is not complete.

-- Rich

(Wow -- as I was checking this text before final posting, Phase 2 was occurring. A search of directory.google.com now finds it. 10 minutes ago, it did not. :)

[edited by: RFranzen at 6:12 pm (utc) on July 11, 2003]

[RFranzen]

I forgot to mention why it makes sense that Google use the three phases. The primary difference between dmoz.org and directory.google.com is in searching. dmoz.org searches only include the content of Titles and Descriptions. The Google Directory adds the contents of the listed pages to its search database.

So, let's say Google decides to update its ODP data and begins with a recent RDF. I don't know for sure what happens, but here is a logical scenario.

1) Google search results reflect recent ODP data. 
-------------------------------------------------

Easy. If a page is listed in the new RDF, its description and category are added to search results. 1:1 database operation.

2) Google Directory search results reflect recent ODP data. 
-----------------------------------------------------------

Google is in the process of visiting pages listed in the new RDF. It is building a search database from scratch, separate and smaller than the primary Google database.

3) Google Directory catalog pages reflect recent ODP data. 
----------------------------------------------------------

Once the Google Directory search database is completely updated and verified, PR can be can be calculated and applied to each listing. (Perhaps it is this PR-refresh phase which has convinced so many people that being listed in the ODP has a significant affect on PR. The fact that a lot of ODP listings have no PR bar indicates that the ODP's actual affect is limited.) The RDF is officially blessed. All directory pages are rebuilt.

-- Rich

[edited by: RFranzen at 6:26 pm (utc) on July 11, 2003]

[tschild]

I can confirm that Google Directory search results seem now to reflect a more recent version of the ODP.

Looking at some sites this seems to reflect a RDF dump version later than 28 May but earlier then 9 June

[Mohamed_E]

I can confirm the "earlier than June 9" part. I had a new site listed in DMOZ on June 9, it is not in Google Directory yet.