Since today is Halloween, we thought it would be a good opportunity to highlight our favorite little monsters, the Mozzies, who you may have noticed lurking around DMOZ. Ever wondered who made them, or why? Editor kazhar has compiled a great history for us.

Happy Halloween!



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What are the little creatures in every DMOZ category?

DMOZ was started in 1998 under the name of Open Directory Project. But between 1998 and 1999, the directory was acquired by Netscape Communications and was moved to http://directory.mozilla.org. Later, the address was shortened to dmoz.org.

A bit later after that, Netscape was purchased by AOL. AOL still owns Netscape and DMOZ, although the Mozilla Foundation is now autonomous and has brought us the Firefox browser.

Now that you know a bit more about the history of the Open Directory Project, it is time to talk about what we call the Mozzies. Have you seen the little creatures at the bottom right of every DMOZ page? These are the Mozzies.

Mozzie -- or Mozilla to give him his full name -- was originally a mascot belonging to Netscape. Because of this relationship, DMOZ editors decided to add him at the bottom of every page.

And they even took it a step further to make different Mozzies depending on the category ...

Every editor has the option to change the Mozzie on every category where he can edit. Today we actually have hundreds of Mozzies available. You can see them all in the bookmarks of Mozzie.


So now you might be wondering who makes the Mozzies. Well, guess ;-)

Good guess. It is the editors. We all can suggest Mozzies to the community, and some of us have the ability to upload new Mozzies on the server. When a new Mozzie is uploaded, the editor responsible only needs to add the appropriate link in the Mozzie's bookmarks.

Maybe you feel like an artist? Well, why not draw us a new Mozilla for your favorite subject? That's very easy! Make your Mozzie the most beautiful you can. Then, apply to become an editor (for example, in the category where you'd like to see the Mozzie listed). Of course, you should also enjoy and be willing to commit time to editing. Wait for your application to be approved. When it is approved, you'll be able to submit a new Mozzie. To know the steps to follow for that, just ask an editor, on the editors' forum, for example.

Note: This post updates the previous version to make several additions/corrections.