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That was once sacrilege to ask, but it is pretty clear that the directory model is a relic of history.
Why hit up webmsaters for $300 per year when you can nail them for $300 per day with Overture ads?
it is pretty clear that the directory model is a relic of history
One of us is going to dine on our words in the next 2-3 years. Little side bet, oh lord and master of WW, on whom that will be?
And, may I add, will you be having mustard or mayonnaise with your quote?
I still think the model will be PFI, into the directory, and then CPC overture style as an enhancement.
Figure Inktomi makes 30 dollars per submission for PFI now, they could be making 300 from it if it was part of the directory, in addition to the money each site would get hand reviewed and placed in its proper category...it seems like it would make sense.
Or if the Yahoo! directory was no longer useful to them, would they consider selling it?
Then again, Brett, your post is worded in such a way that you seem to be hinting you know something you can't really talk about openly. So rather than say it out loud, pose it as a hypothetical..... :)
Why hit up webmsaters for $300 per year when you can nail them for $300 per day with Overture ads?
Because there are a lot more webmasters and business owners that can afford $300/year?
This could hide under the guise of "Link Popularity".
When they stopped allowing certain types of sites, the webmasters got 0 refunds. By giving them $300 you are not guaranteed a thing and they have no problem hosing you.
Anyway, if they keep the directory as it is now, it is basically gone as it is used less than mamma.com :)
[edited by: mfishy at 9:48 pm (utc) on Jan. 22, 2004]
I like human reviewed directories for the quality factor.
I think it is still a good business model for Yahoo,
zeus
Printed yellowpages? Slowly but certainly dying.
Citysearch? A lot of viability in the "community guide" model - just a bit more labor intensive. Look for a buy-in/buy-out of that model by the yellowpages. Fits neatly with their existing model.
Online megadirectory? A few will survive and fewer will thrive.
Niche directory? Maybe as a stand alone, more likely as a directory/community focused on the niche. Organic traffic from people looking for more than just a directory....and from people just looking for a directory.
One of my favorite movies sums it all, what is gone and what's to come in the world of "looking up a business"...
"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again. Oh people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.
-Terrance Mann in the movie, "Field of Dreams"
Substitute "business search" or maybe even "business directory" for baseball.
Independent human-sanctioned quality ratings are the most valuable and reliable source of ranking currency for search engines that currently exist.
In this context, the solution is obvious. Yahoo demands a large monthly fee from Google for crawling it's directory. Naturally Google will then argue that it has many alternatives and will refuse to pay the fee for fear of others following suit. Yahoo's next move would be to have a friendly chat with AOL about its Dmoz directory and that's when things could get very interesting. It's only a matter of time before AOL and Yahoo hire management technically-advised well and insightful enough to fully understand this combined position of power......
[ecom.yahoo.com...]
there's simply no way they could justify having recently charged anyone for inclusion into their directory if it's going to be dropped in the very near future.
if/when that page changes significantly - or disappears - then i might concur with your view.
interesting thought though.
General directories with a couple of lines of description and link just can't compete with specialty ones that have data fields specific to the subject matter, intelligent cross-linking, etc.
For the people who like to hit the toolbar directory button (and I'm one of them), you know it is permissable to search keyword directory.
But...in the real world, most companies only care about the user because doing so leads to greater sales and more profit. (If a company stops caring about the user completely, profit will deteriorate; if they only care about the user, margins will deteriorate.)
This will turn into the old battle between margin and quality. The ultimate question will be: how many people and business users will we aggravate if we drop the directory, versus how much more will we make? Risk, reward.
Human edited directories, when managed properly, don't have that problem to the same extent.
Google is getting more and more clogged up with junk.
Another possibility is to gather a lot of user input about what's really good. There should be a google mouse with ten buttons on it. As you click on links, you rate the page you're leaving from 1 to 10.
I love the human directory results, but when you think about financial aspect of paying editors on staff to look over the directory and handling new submissions when they are charging you only $300 for year it didnt make sense anymore after seeing the revenue from Overture's CPC model.
A search engine that relies heavily on a human edited directory will always beat one that relies purely on bots. And to "rely heavily" doesn't mean you need to do a 100% good job. A search engine that uses a directory that is up to date 20% of the time is going to produce higher quality results in general.
More to the point of thread, why on earth would they get rid of the Directory? LOL. It just sits there, basically out of the way, making some bucks.
"Hey Boss, this Directory thing is only making us a few million bucks, let's get rid of it."
Human edited directories, when managed properly, don't have that problem to the same extent.
I agree with you, but Yahoo doesn't properly manage their directory. In categories that are prone to spam, they have allowed almost all of it in and sold out their directory for $299/year. IMO, the reason they switched to Google for their primary SERPS instead of their directory back in Oct. 02 was because they had allowed it to become so spammy.
