Should Google Adopt the MSN NOODP tag?

[piconsulting]

Since MSN has introduced this new meta tag to prevent them from displaying the ODP descriptions, does anyone else want Google to do the same?

The tag is: <meta name="ROBOTS" content="NOODP">

Either that, or at least adjust the algo to rank a site based on it's actual <title>/meta description and just use the ODP in the SERP (kinda like how Yahoo does with their directory listings in the SERPs)

[stinkfoot]

Yes they should imo .. but .. google thinks it owns the internet ... do you really think they would ever want to give credit to anyone else for a good idea?

[Quadrille]

In probably nine cases out of ten, the ODP description is far superior, the alternative usually being a mass of keywords. But I'd still like to see site owners get the option of excluding it. And the one in ten whose ODP description is out of date or just plain wrong, would have a remedy.

I also like the idea of the SEs working together, as with NOFOLLOW

However, what matters more to most site owners is how the page is ranked, rather than their first amendment rights - I'm joking ;) - Does the NOODP tag affect rankings? Do we know that?

[piconsulting]

Quadrille: I don't know if the noodp tag affects MSN rankings, but I do know it affects Google.

Using the mcdar tool and checking one of my sites I noticed 17 out of 55 DCs are not using DMOZ but rank the homepage fine, the others DC's don't rank the homepage for anything but the DMOZ company name (and maybe some variants).