Sep 26th 2007 9:01PM
The Search For DMOZ
Yesterday the internet was all a flutter with reports and wide ranging theories as to why searches for "DMOZ" in Google were not returning the usual results. If you happened to miss those, I've included a couple of examples that can be found here, here, here and here.
While these made for great headlines and no shortage of comments and link backs...they were 100% off the mark.
Truth is, this is just one of those things that happens from time to time in the world of search.
We made some significant upgrades to our back-end systems to improve the stability of DMOZ. One of those changes required changing the root domain from dmoz.org to www.dmoz.org. What we all witnessed yesterday and what was reported by the great sites above was part of an index recognizing, adjusting and updating in real time. This was confirmed in discussions we had with Google and everything should be running smoothly now.
So go ahead and try a query for DMOZ. And if you don't see our site, clear your browser cache and try again.
Here is a screen grab taken 5 minutes ago.
You can also give it a shot in the search box above ( click the web link & enter query ).
DMOZ is not dying folks. We're growing every day. Globally.
Feel free to use that sound bite from now on in your future posts : )
While these made for great headlines and no shortage of comments and link backs...they were 100% off the mark.
Truth is, this is just one of those things that happens from time to time in the world of search.
We made some significant upgrades to our back-end systems to improve the stability of DMOZ. One of those changes required changing the root domain from dmoz.org to www.dmoz.org. What we all witnessed yesterday and what was reported by the great sites above was part of an index recognizing, adjusting and updating in real time. This was confirmed in discussions we had with Google and everything should be running smoothly now.
So go ahead and try a query for DMOZ. And if you don't see our site, clear your browser cache and try again.
Here is a screen grab taken 5 minutes ago.
You can also give it a shot in the search box above ( click the web link & enter query ).
DMOZ is not dying folks. We're growing every day. Globally.
Feel free to use that sound bite from now on in your future posts : )
Add your comments
Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.
When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.
To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br> tags.
1. Thanks to AOL and Google for working together to resolve this so quickly.
Posted at 10:24PM on Sep 26th 2007 by xixtas
2. By the way, it's not really hard to be placed on that request. You already were before to add a 301 redirect from the http:// to http://www.
Posted at 3:15AM on Sep 27th 2007 by kaztor
3. Does the fact that DMOZ is alive and well mean you guys will catch up with adding websites to your directory?
Don't say, "help us by becoming an editor" because I've applied twice and received no response either time on that issue either.
So I've tried to get on board and help and a few years ago, I did edit for DMOZ. I don't have the same old email address or even know what it was. Not even sure what username I had. That seems to be the reason for not contacting me back? Or is it just backlog like with adding new websites?
Posted at 4:07AM on Sep 27th 2007 by NameCritic
4. @NameCritic: This is rather off-topic for this post, but if you've been an editor before you must come back under your old identity -- a new account is not permitted. You may find the good people at http://www.resource-zone.com/ will be able to help you out though.
Posted at 4:24AM on Sep 27th 2007 by chaos127
5. what can you say about ICANN banning the use of www 2 years ago? ;)
http://www.bbspot.com/News/2005/09/icann_ban_www.html
Posted at 12:21PM on Sep 27th 2007 by splogger
6. Glad to hear its resolved. I would love to see DMOZ get back on track and make some changes.
Posted at 1:04PM on Sep 27th 2007 by Mack
7. @Splogger - It's a bs story. Thank god for the auto link condom.
Posted at 1:12PM on Sep 27th 2007 by MrStitch
8. "Does the fact that DMOZ is alive and well mean you guys will catch up with adding websites to your directory?"
No. Editors are only required to make one edit every 4 months - and that can be any edit, for example rewording the description. They do not have to add any sites.
Posted at 4:08PM on Sep 27th 2007 by daisy
9. This is good stuff gals/guys. Anytime you can reach out to the general public in some way has to be a good thing. I'd be wary though of comments about:
"why is my site not listed."
"are you going to ADD sites again."
"how long before you list my site."
etc, etc. As a long time forums owner.. PRO DMOZ btw, I've seen and read the same complaints for years. It's good you all will have a place like this to post changes and news, etc, but keep in mind the "SEO" industry only cares about itself and what can you do for ME NOW attitude. I'm sure you all already know that. :-)
Kudos to you.
Posted at 4:57PM on Sep 27th 2007 by Doug Heil
10. We enjoy the Great evolution of DMOZ !
That's why I've introduced DMOZ search tool on my Seo Toolbar :
http://referenceur.wordpress.com/seo-toolbar/
Posted at 8:01PM on Sep 27th 2007 by Bilel
11. Glad to hear its resolved. I would love to see DMOZ get back on track and make some changes.
Posted at 11:35PM on Sep 27th 2007 by http:www.idoo-dpf.com
12. I think the issue here is bigger than what initially appears.
An incredible number of pages which URLs have been changed to http://www.dmoz.org/... from http://dmoz.org/... during the process of canonicalisation in August 2007, are currently not in Google's cache and their links are not being considered by Google.
As an example: a google search for '"Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television" site:www.dmoz.com', brings no results, although these words are clearly on this page: http://www.dmoz.org/Regional/North_America/Canada/Arts_and_Entertainment/
So at the moment Google does not see these words and the related link from DMOZ, and the same applies to millions of other links in other pages on DMOZ (it is easy to check this on the other pages by picking a random page in DMOZ, picking a particular sequence of words in it and searching for the exact sentence in Google, specifying site:www.dmoz.org).
This is affecting millions of websites and of course an incredible amount of Google search results, until the canonicalised http://www.dmoz.org/... pages with the new URLs are indexed and cached in Google again.
I think that you guys should ask the engineers at Google to have a proper look into this, in order to try to index all the DMOZ pages with new URLs as soon as possible. In fact a huge number of searches and even tests at Google on new algorithms might be altered by this effect.
Posted at 3:52AM on Sep 28th 2007 by Vincent H.
13. "I think that you guys should ask the engineers at Google to have a proper look into this, in order to try to index all the DMOZ pages with new URLs as soon as possible."
Hey Vincent, thanks for stopping by. We did in fact check with Google. We've been told that everything is as it should be. But please help us stay on top of this. And again, thanks for the comment.
Posted at 9:38AM on Sep 28th 2007 by bbqgrant
14. Cool that You made a blog. I add maybe 10 times my website in over 1 year and it's still not added when it will be added?
Posted at 1:09PM on Sep 28th 2007 by Tomek
15. when the cows come home ... or you pay an editor.
Whichever comes first ...
Posted at 6:15PM on Sep 30th 2007 by Mike Dammann
16. Daisy - You mentioned that editors only need to take action once in at least every 4 months.
Will DMOZ ever tighten that up a little?
Also, would DMOZ ever be willing to let everyone know about how long it takes to process editor applications? For those that submitted an app, there is no telling whether the app is approved or declined.... or if it's waiting in line with 1,000 other applications.
Posted at 1:03PM on Oct 1st 2007 by MrStitch
17. @MrStitch, They are low on editors as it is, (recruiting is probably one of the reasons for this blog) putting more time requirements on them would likely only result in more expired editor accounts...and less new sign ups.
You can ask about your editor application at http://www.resource-zone.com they will tell you if it was received, if it was accepted or declined, but they will not tell you why it was declined or how long you have to wait.
Posted at 4:41PM on Oct 1st 2007 by daisy
18. Like any community based project, you can always use more help.
We are currently adding an average of 78 new editors a week. Would certainly love to increase that.
I think all of the attention that ODP/DMOZ is getting now will only help in making that possible.
Posted at 5:32PM on Oct 1st 2007 by bbqgrant
19. One of the main nice to have features is whether application has been approved or denied,
the reason for it and how long it will take to review it.
I added my site http://www.zipdrugs.com twice in the last 9 months and it still not in the index.
Posted at 11:29AM on Oct 2nd 2007 by Zip Drugs legal online pharmacy
20. I'm glad to hear you are hiring more editors. Because I have been dissapointed with my results for DMOZ thus far. I have a quality tutoring website http://crowntutoring.com that I have tried to submit in the tutoring category for the past two years. I noticed that the category has had no editor as long as I have checked and is full of dead links or those that redirect to unrelated sites. I applied to become an objective editor for the category and was denied. I just hope in the future my site will be reviewed or I will be invited to an editor as I have expertise in the industry.
That is all. Glad you guys are back in google.
Posted at 11:31PM on Oct 3rd 2007 by Alex F.