What is the Problem with DMOZ?

July 28, 2012 - PRLog -- The very mention of the word DMOZ can cause a lot of angst among webmasters. DMOZ or the Open Directory Project (ODP) is a web directory that consists of about 5 million listings making it the largest web directory on the internet. It is one of the oldest directories on the web and is currently owned by the internet company, AOL. There is an army of volunteer editors that maintain the listings and review new sites for listings. DMOZ used to be used as the basis of the Google Directory which no longer exists. There is a general feeling among experts that directories are a thing of the past and not tht important any more.

The reason that DMOZ creates angst among webmasters is that they all want to get their sites listed there and new sites are being created faster than editors can review them (http://www.forumdr.com/understanding-dmoz/1055/). That means there is always going to be a backlog for the volunteer editors to review. Some site may be waiting years to get reviewed, leading to all sorts of allegations of corruption and editors taking payments for listings. There are many complaints about DMOZ in webmaster forums. What most of them miss is that DMOZ is run by volunteers and webmasters seem to believe in some sort of entitlement to a listing when no such entitlement exists. Part of the desperation in trying to get listed is the mistaken belief in the value fo a listing from DMOZ. It is only one backlink for a site and that will neither make nor break a site, but many mistakenly believe that it does.

To get a site listed in DMOZ (http://www.forumdr.com/how-to-get-a-forum-listed-in-dmoz/...), it is simply a matter of making a suggestion to the directory and them moving on. After submitting there is nothing that can be done, so it is not worth be concerned about. The site will either get listed eventually or it will not.