New OPD dump visible in SERPs

the directory not up to date at this time

[Tomcat]

I see results of a new ODP dump on SERPs - the directory isn't up to date at this hour, for me.

Can anybody confirm?

[BGumble]

Not on my end. One site of mine was moved up a category, but the old cat is still listed under the SERP. How are you noticing a difference if the directory is still not up to date?

ps. Welcome to Webmasterworld!

[tschild]

I cannot confirm it either. The URL of my personal home page was changed in the ODP on 18 April; this change has to date propagated neither to the Google directory nor to the directory category shown with the SERPs (checked within the last minutes).

[dazzlindonna]

I can confirm. My site shows the category link in the SERPs, but if you click on the link, the site is nowhere to be found in the google directory.

[ogletree]

My new descriptions show up on a search at DMOZ but they have not been updated on Google. The new description on DMOZ is a new thing for sure. It was not there last week. I guess Google is not down with ODP. Are you down with ODP. :)

[twilight47]

Yeah, you know me.

(had to do it. ;) )

[Tomcat]

@dazzlindonna

that's exactly what I meant :)

I can date this up to the middle of May. The descriptions of already listed sites didn't change; just new sites to be found with Google-cat-link, but won't appear there.

[dazzlindonna]

yes, tomcat, it is as if google has the new odp listings somewhere within its server farm, because it knows i exist in the new odp listings, however, it has never published the new listings on its own google directory. very strange. someone's oversight? not publishing it for a reason? just haven't had time? i dont know.

[hutcheson]

No need to resort to paranoid fantasies. So far, Google has shown no signs of removing sites from the ODP dump (even sites that are banned from Google search for viscious SERPing.)

The current state of the ODP directory (which you see and Google spiders) is retrograde, even more out of date than it was last month (due to public pages having been moved to a different server, and the page update process changed.) So Google SEARCH could have spidered a more recent dmoz.org page than you can see. And Google DIRECTORY picks up from the RDF, which will have yet a different date on it.

Everyone's moving forward, just not in lockstep. If a site goes into (out of) the ODP, eventually Google will fully represent its new status. "Exactly when?" Who knows, given the current hardware/software flux.

[g1smd]

As of a few days ago, I have started seeing a few sites with new Google Directory category tags added to their SERP results.

They are for sites added to the ODP in mid to late April, or very early May, but the sites do not actually appear in the Google Directory if you click the link.

Looks like Google are waaay behind with their update. The ODP as been churning out the data every week; but Google still have a very old copy and aren't doing a lot with it.

[IITian]

>Google still have a very old copy and aren't doing a lot with it.

Why does Google keep a copy. Couldn't they just multiply the weight given to ODP by about 2? Will save on crawling time.

[johnnydequino]

So, will there ever be another dance? The only thing I have learned about google over the past several months is there is only one thing you can count on: noTHING.

jd

[jranes]

I am starting to wonder if this has any priority at Google at all?

[mmdesign]

To me, it seems that new SERP Descriptions have been online for at least 1 week, if not 2, but the Google Directory remains very obsolete. I agree that their Directory appears to be a low priority for G. Perhaps their own directory is one of those GG mentioned as "not widely used" some time ago.

[Toasted]

My site got listed in the ODP only a few days before they started doing the updates (I think I noticed it around the 12th of July or so).

A few odd things - doing a search at Google on my site showed the ODP listing (then and now).

Prior to the DMOZ server upgrade (and we're talking days here) - I could only find my site listed if I went to [dmoz.com...] - it could not be found if you went to www.dmoz.com, dmoz.org, or www.dmoz.org

Now that the upgrade is complete I can not see my site on any of the 4 url variations above. However, if I enter my site into the search box at DMOZ, it finds the listing for it (though the category it says it is in, still isn't showing it).

So... what I'm thinking at the moment, is that google crawled the dmoz site just prior to the upgrade (and got the most current listing), but dmoz itself hasn't got the latest version of the data yet (I read somewhere that they were using a version of the directory from June or something while they were updating the new servers)... sounds like we just need to wait a little while for everything to transfer across after their new server upgrades.

[takagi]

what I'm thinking at the moment, is that google crawled the dmoz site just prior to the upgrade

That is not how it works between DMOZ and Google. Just like any other DMOZ-clone, the data is coming from a so called RDF-dump, provided by DMOZ. Between September last year and March this year, they had a problem to make the RDF-dump and therefor the Google Directory was also not updated. Eventhough the updated DMOZ pages were crawled by Google's bots.

[g1smd]

>> dmoz itself hasn't got the latest version of the data yet <<

Umm, no. The editors now have a separate server to that seen by the public. The public side was split away from the editing side at the beginning of July in preparation for upgrading the editing servers. The public side was loaded with data from early or mid June, hence suddenly having older data. The edit side had the current data, and has been edited and updated all the time; except for the 6 days that the server was off offline and the data transferred to new machines. The public side still shows the very old data, but that will be replaced with the data from the edit server in the next few days.

The reason for seeing different data at different domains is that some redirected to the edit side, and others to the public side. All domains that the public can access should now be redirected to the (currently old) public data. You'll see that data update in a day or two.

[Fearless]

g1smd,

Maybe I'm not following something.

If I look up my category in dmoz.org and the exact same category in the Google directory, my site and one other new site are present in dmoz but missing from Google.

Are you saying that the dmoz publicly viewable directory will update in a day or two or that the Google directory will update shortly?

Sorry for being so thick headed.

[Tomcat]

Fearless,

Only Google knows when they decide to update their directory with the ODP dump (or if anybody knows, please feel free to tell *gg*). But I think there's a good chance this will happen soon.

The content at Google directory is older than the public one of the ODP, so your site is not in Google directory, yet.

[g1smd]

The ODP public side is now being updated with the latest data from the edit server. This replaces the old and frozen data (from early June) that the public side has been showing for the last 6 weeks.

Google update their directory from the RDF file that the ODP produces weekly. They haven't updated for many months. They do it when they feel like it.

Google appear to be starting to use data that the ODP produced in May. So far only category links are appearing in search engine results, the actual Google directory data itself is very old.

[ogletree]

My description that comes from DMOZ has just updated on Google but has not been updated if I click on the directory link below it. I am very happy. This just happend this week.