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Now, I know Google currently crawls the ODP and still passe s on PR from the ODP, but it is also clear that web sites in the Google directory do get an extra ranking/PR boost.
It surely must be as frustrating for odp editors as well as for webmasters and of course the many small directories that rely on the dump for their own web pages (Who are also left completely in the dark). I mean the editors voluntarily, for the most part, put a lot of work into keeping the directory current and spam free and yet the fruits of their efforts are never seen beyond the no doubt very few visitors who use the DMOZ directory. Their additions and amendments and spam booting have not been seen in Google since September. This must be demoralizing for them.
I actually think DMOZ is NOT the corrupt snake pit I have heard many times said about it, and I believe they do a thankless task very well for the most part. There are a few bad apples but I believe they get found out eventually and booted out.
I am really concerned that the ODP is going to lose their Google partnership, even though they are closely linked with PR calculation. It MUST be embaressing for Google to have such an out of date spam filled directory, surely?
Anyway, if anyone knows what on earth is going on please let us all know. I'm sure I'm not the only one who expected to see the rdf ready for this month, only to find yet another month gone by :-(
Alan
It's more than likely much more of an agitant to webmasters whose sites have been delayed for inclusion in the Google Directory, but their day will come. It will happen. Some day.
So as Bobby_Davro says, a new dump run started a couple of days ago (6-Jan). As far as I know it's still running.
This no-RDF is just as irritating to us editors as it is to those of you with websites you want showcased. It appears to me (I may be wrong about this) that DMOZ editor's programs (not the public search) run at a lower priority than the RDF dump. Certainly, I've given up trying to edit several times this week because its been so slow.
Damn the inter-corporate politics, brag as much as you want about it in the press, but just do it. Thank you for your kind consideration.
I have several small non-profit sites which show clearly that the ODP is the source of almost all page rank. It is by far the most authoritative directory on the planet. Without ODP, these small informative niche sites are sunk. Thank you, all ODP staff and editors.
MHO, YMMV,
Jim
Alan, my guess is that if Google's search results are relevant and their directory has quality sites that satisfy the needs of the searchers, with both satisfying their quality standards, they might not be overly concerned.
It's more than likely much more of an agitant to webmasters whose sites have been delayed for inclusion in the Google Directory, but their day will come. It will happen. Some day.
Not just that, Marcia.
I have seen several (I stopped counting at around 30)expired domains (PR 6 and 7) which used to be informational and now point to adult sites.
Can you picture the situation? You are searching for a kindergarten, you end up looking at adult stuff. It doesn´t take many of such cases to severely hurt the credibility
of google and dmoz.
These sites owe their high PR to the hundreds of sites which mirror Dmoz. These sites are actually quickly deleted from dmoz (competition usually alerts editors), but while there is not an RDF, they remain listed everywhere else (including G Directory), remain with high PR, get lots of Google traffic everyday.
I agree: some money should be spent by someone NOW to fix this problem, instead of spending lots more later to try to fix a bad image.
Julinho makes the very valid point that the Google directory simply isn't just relevant and spam free results and does not provide the editorial standards you would expect from results coming from Google. There is plenty of javascript redirection to porn sites, and I wouldn't mind betting, there are sharks out there buying domains in the Google directory which have high PR solely to redirect to Porn/Casino/irrelevant web pages.
Lets hope this current run produces no errors!
Part of the problem is that the dumps take days to run, and the errors show up towards the end
In my (limited) experience Google doesn't update the entire structure at once - e.g. they might refresh the so-called World category before the rest of the hierarchy.
I just don't see why they don't make partial dumps.
A lot of the discussion on the ODP internal forum about this is lamenting the difficulty of maintaining old, complex, legacy code. Just one person and a great heap of problems and priorities.
If they'd known they were going to be this successful, I'm sure they would have written it for partial dumps in the first place. As it is that is unlikely to happen at least short term.
What are they using to do the processing a TRS80? There are only 3.8 million web sites listed, why on earth does it take so long?
I guess the bottom line is that if Google cared a great deal about a new ODP dump it would either offer some $$$ or get a programmer at the Plex to write a crawler to produce the dump. I like the latter solution, I'm not sure AOL would use the $$$ wisely.
Maybe this explains the absence of GoogleGuy, he said he was going to be around less after the New Year, is he working on a crawler for the ODP? ;)
So, obviously, ODP is a resource worthy of support by the industry - Using a PageRank-like analogy, all of these major search providers "vote" for ODP by using its results, directly or indirectly.
Regarding Marcia's suggestion, I also think a "Make a Donation" button at the upper right corner of each ODP page is a great idea, and have been known to click on them in the past.
Jim
I agree with webby2001 and jdMorgan and Marcia.
This is getting to be a bad joke about the RDF Dump that never finished. Some of the big companies which use the Dmoz DB SHOULD make something, contribute someway or make a donation in either hardware or advanced programming.
If just one of the big guys from Dmoz could read this thread and put a "Make a donation to Dmoz" somewhere in the results pages, I wouldn't be the only one to use it, and I'm pretty sure that a lot of webmasters would do the same.
Are the big Players going to let Dmoz die? And as Arjan previously said: ....
[everybody turn their heads and stare at Googleguy face and from the crowd somebody asks:]
Googleguy?
Agreed.... and I reckon I could twist quite a few arms to get some others on board.
ODP is far too important to the net to be disrupted like this. The current custodians are frankly bringing themselves into disrepute by not serving it properly. If they won't give it the resources it deserves, they should pass it on to someone who will (and I reckon there would be plenty of takers).
Customers click rapidly - but databases update slowly.
It eventually sorts itself out in the end if you're not trying to chase a quick solution.
Put up a great site, and give it time. Think slowly and act slower.
