Jan 29th 2010 5:31PM
DMOZ: A Decade in Review
Hi Everyone,
This week, we have a very special guest blogger! Bob Keating, our editor-in-chief, has prepared some personal thoughts and insights on the directory's next decade. Enjoy!
Emily
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The other night I was watching an old episode of the TV show "Six Feet Under," in which the character Ruth is coaxed by a friend to attend a self-help seminar called, "The Plan." The Plan uses the house as a metaphor for examining and re-building one's life. When Ruth tells her family about "The Plan," she learns it is not as new to her as it is to others. Her children believe it to be a cult, but show little concern of their mother's interests. Ruth's free-spirited sister said she went through The Plan in the 1970s when it was called something else, and then commented how Ruth's kitchen is exactly the same as it was back then. Ruth realized just how much rebuilding she had to do. She was terminally unhip and out of touch with the world around her.
As I was watching others respond to Ruth's involvement with The Plan, I began to think about DMOZ. Over a decade ago, DMOZ was a new and intriguing idea of getting the web to organize itself by having web users build it, manage it, and develop it. DMOZ had its fair share of detractors, particularly from those who argued that its model would never result in a quality, commercially viable service. Then there were those who understood the possibilities of an emerging social media, and went on to build powerful consumer brands based on the idea of self-organizing communities.
The '00s: Growth, Loss and Rebirth
Reflecting over the past decade it is too easy to come up with a list of DMOZ's successes. In the last ten years, DMOZ has gone from scrappy start-up to search industry stalwart. DMOZ data is consumed by thousands of search engines and websites in over 80 languages, from Google to smaller, special interest websites.
DMOZ has scaled to become, and sustained itself as the largest human-edited directory of the web. Over 84,000 editors (and growing) have contributed over the years, listing of more than 4.5 million websites total. DMOZ has been a major influence in the rise of social media, inspiring the creation of projects like Wikipedia. Its model for collaboration has been refined and improved upon to form the basis of a number of other editor-contributor projects.
At the beginning of the last decade, DMOZ was managed by a small staff that had the goal of turning DMOZ into a self-regulating community of editors. DMOZ has pushed the limits of community self-regulation. Today, DMOZ operates primarily as a self-governing meritocracy in which day-to-day activities – from editor account requests to submission suggestions and editorial quality – are wholly managed by the community with limited staff oversight.
A review of the past decade would not be complete without mentioning the day DMOZ went dark in late 2006 after a catastrophic operations failure. The herculean efforts and steadfast dedication of its technical editors and community leaders brought DMOZ back to life.
Over the '00 decade, DMOZ has grown to be one of the most successful collaborative projects on the web. It has outlasted its commercial counterparts, and continues to be relevant in the search industry. The keys to its longevity and usefulness are its dedicated community, its open, collaborative editorial model, its non-commercial nature, and open data distribution channel.
The '10s: Looking Ahead
As easy as it is to come up with a list of DMOZ's successes, it's equally easy to come up with a list of things it can improve upon. This list is well documented in the annals of editor forums and search engine industry blogs.
Much like Ruth's kitchen and her life in general, DMOZ still looks and operates much the same way it did a decade ago ... avocado green appliances and all. While DMOZ receives hundreds of editor applications, and lists thousands of websites each week, it needs a new Plan – a new blueprint for the future of how the web is organized, and how human organized data is consumed.
Using traditional web directories as a means for information discovery is a thing of the past. However, the need for organized web-based content continues to grow exponentially. The future of DMOZ does not lie merely in improving its toolset, making it more SEO friendly, or convincing others of its collective brilliance. Its future lies in turning the entire thing on its head.
In 2020, here's what I hope will be listed as the early successes of DMOZ during the '10s – and since DMOZ has been a bit like the Hotel California to me, I might even be writing it:
And hopefully that's just 2010. What's said in the years ahead depends on how the web community shapes DMOZ and develops new ways of using its data and services. I'm excited by the future of DMOZ as much as I was in January 2000.
This week, we have a very special guest blogger! Bob Keating, our editor-in-chief, has prepared some personal thoughts and insights on the directory's next decade. Enjoy!
Emily
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The other night I was watching an old episode of the TV show "Six Feet Under," in which the character Ruth is coaxed by a friend to attend a self-help seminar called, "The Plan." The Plan uses the house as a metaphor for examining and re-building one's life. When Ruth tells her family about "The Plan," she learns it is not as new to her as it is to others. Her children believe it to be a cult, but show little concern of their mother's interests. Ruth's free-spirited sister said she went through The Plan in the 1970s when it was called something else, and then commented how Ruth's kitchen is exactly the same as it was back then. Ruth realized just how much rebuilding she had to do. She was terminally unhip and out of touch with the world around her.
As I was watching others respond to Ruth's involvement with The Plan, I began to think about DMOZ. Over a decade ago, DMOZ was a new and intriguing idea of getting the web to organize itself by having web users build it, manage it, and develop it. DMOZ had its fair share of detractors, particularly from those who argued that its model would never result in a quality, commercially viable service. Then there were those who understood the possibilities of an emerging social media, and went on to build powerful consumer brands based on the idea of self-organizing communities.
The '00s: Growth, Loss and Rebirth
Reflecting over the past decade it is too easy to come up with a list of DMOZ's successes. In the last ten years, DMOZ has gone from scrappy start-up to search industry stalwart. DMOZ data is consumed by thousands of search engines and websites in over 80 languages, from Google to smaller, special interest websites.
DMOZ has scaled to become, and sustained itself as the largest human-edited directory of the web. Over 84,000 editors (and growing) have contributed over the years, listing of more than 4.5 million websites total. DMOZ has been a major influence in the rise of social media, inspiring the creation of projects like Wikipedia. Its model for collaboration has been refined and improved upon to form the basis of a number of other editor-contributor projects.
At the beginning of the last decade, DMOZ was managed by a small staff that had the goal of turning DMOZ into a self-regulating community of editors. DMOZ has pushed the limits of community self-regulation. Today, DMOZ operates primarily as a self-governing meritocracy in which day-to-day activities – from editor account requests to submission suggestions and editorial quality – are wholly managed by the community with limited staff oversight.
A review of the past decade would not be complete without mentioning the day DMOZ went dark in late 2006 after a catastrophic operations failure. The herculean efforts and steadfast dedication of its technical editors and community leaders brought DMOZ back to life.
Over the '00 decade, DMOZ has grown to be one of the most successful collaborative projects on the web. It has outlasted its commercial counterparts, and continues to be relevant in the search industry. The keys to its longevity and usefulness are its dedicated community, its open, collaborative editorial model, its non-commercial nature, and open data distribution channel.
The '10s: Looking Ahead
As easy as it is to come up with a list of DMOZ's successes, it's equally easy to come up with a list of things it can improve upon. This list is well documented in the annals of editor forums and search engine industry blogs.
Much like Ruth's kitchen and her life in general, DMOZ still looks and operates much the same way it did a decade ago ... avocado green appliances and all. While DMOZ receives hundreds of editor applications, and lists thousands of websites each week, it needs a new Plan – a new blueprint for the future of how the web is organized, and how human organized data is consumed.
Using traditional web directories as a means for information discovery is a thing of the past. However, the need for organized web-based content continues to grow exponentially. The future of DMOZ does not lie merely in improving its toolset, making it more SEO friendly, or convincing others of its collective brilliance. Its future lies in turning the entire thing on its head.
In 2020, here's what I hope will be listed as the early successes of DMOZ during the '10s – and since DMOZ has been a bit like the Hotel California to me, I might even be writing it:
- Developed an API to DMOZ data that allowed editors and developers across the web to write new applications using DMOZ data
- Transformed from a fixed-path directory, to the largest faceted system for organizing information on the web
- Become a major influencer in bringing the semantic web out of the lab and the enterprise, and into the entire web, popularizing Web 3.0 applications
- Transformed DMOZ from a single service operated by a relatively closed and exclusive community to a suite of products with multiple levels of participation and engagement, particularly around communities of interests, both commercial and non-commercial.
And hopefully that's just 2010. What's said in the years ahead depends on how the web community shapes DMOZ and develops new ways of using its data and services. I'm excited by the future of DMOZ as much as I was in January 2000.
1. Commenters who wish to ask about problems in applying to be an editor or anything to do with the day to day running of the directory can find information at http://www.resource-zone.com/forum/.
Posted at 6:34PM on Jan 29th 2010 by Eric-the-Bun
2. Thanks for sharing your thought's Bob. I hope we are not forced to wait until 2020 to see the improvements your mentioned!
Posted at 5:37AM on Jan 30th 2010 by cmic
3. Hi, I did not know much about DMOZ, but now I do, great informational
article. I will be coming back for more.
One question if you don't mind. Will you guys post my site?
Posted at 6:50PM on Jan 31st 2010 by Yuriy Anischenko
4. Well said, Bob, Dmoz was and would remain one of the best Web Directory over the web, wish with a neat and clean site I have, we have more editors editing the directories in the kind of service we are in, in Australia and Perth. But it makes sense and I would wait until my site gets listed.
Thank you anyway for running Dmoz and making difference in an online world, Hats off to all you guys working @ Dmoz
Regards,
Matt
Perth Australia
Posted at 10:15AM on Feb 2nd 2010 by House Cleaning Perth
5. nice article, me too i wanted my blogs to be indexed by DMOZ or just by google, i have trouble on submitting on them.
Posted at 10:02AM on Feb 3rd 2010 by don bunot
6. I'm glad DMOZ is growing and making changes (not to mention planning changes), but perhaps one of the larger changes DMOZ should make is to both open up the submission process so more people see the choices that are happening, and why, as well as speed up the process. Many of us have been using DMOZ for awhile, but have sites sitting in limbo for months.
I understand there is more "crap" to dig through today (like the spam in the comments here), but things need to change for the site to become more popular. Not many people know about DMOZ, except for 90% of the businesses out there that try to get listed on it - at least IMO.
Posted at 11:27PM on Feb 5th 2010 by Justin
7. thank you so much for the article
Posted at 4:16AM on Feb 9th 2010 by sewa mobil
8. I've been in the Internet business for a little over two years now and I can state without reservation that Dmoz.org is corrupt.
I've tried to get my site added to the "human resources group" for almost two years now. In those two years not a single site has been added to that group. At one point I applied to be an editor because I was told the group was to large for a new editor so I was turned down. I was recently however told by Jim Noble that this group does not even have an editor. I guess it's more important to not have an editor over a section, not add a single site in over a year and half, than to hire a volunteer editor who has more than 15 years of experience within that industry. Sure, that makes all the since in the world.
I sent a message today reporting abuse over the human resources software group because nothing has been added and I received a rude reponse from Jim Noble. I tried to respond and after working to craft a very specific email, the site errored out when I tried to send the message, LOL.
At this point it's a quest. I think I am going to add my site on a weekly basis to every group that appears to be a good fit. For that matter I may go ahead and apply to be an editor on a weekly basis as well.
See ya next week,
Clay
Posted at 3:24PM on Feb 10th 2010 by Clay
9. nice article, me too i wanted my blogs to be indexed by DMOZ or just by google, i have trouble on submitting on them.
in addition, give me some advide about my new site and How can I signup my site to DMOZ. thanks
Posted at 8:46PM on Feb 10th 2010 by joyo
10. What happened to DMOZ? http://shop.ebay.com/290401238551 Now your moderators are selling entries on eBay?
Posted at 4:47AM on Feb 11th 2010 by Marco
11. I have not registered my blog at DMOZ yet, whether is my blog reasonable or not.
Some other sites I've never registered, because according to the information, it is difficult at approve at DMOZ.
With regard to the writing above, actually the concept of community is very appropriate applied in DMOZ, it's a bit like wikipedia.
If not blocked by the speed (manual input), perhaps DMOZ has become number one, because the involvement of "human".
This is similar to the blog machine that shift static sites, because the blogs are dynamic and interactive. Social networking sites also are the trend, because there is human interaction there.
Dmoz basic concept is very good, but may have also made some innovations through continuous experimentation, so that will never miss.
Regards
Posted at 2:35PM on Feb 17th 2010 by partogi
12. dmoz needs transparency.
Posted at 5:22AM on Feb 15th 2010 by Euskal SEO
13. DMOZ should be able to adapt and become a stronger force in the decade to come. The most
single important quality DMOZ has it's it's independent and objective style. To much rigidity could lead to a loss of this attribute.
Let us all hope DMOZ emerges as the leader in 2020. regards...devonshire
Posted at 9:26PM on Feb 15th 2010 by bob
14. nice artikel
Posted at 8:47PM on Feb 16th 2010 by sewa mobil
15. I recently applied to be an editor for DMOZ and have been rejected. The e-mail that I received
indicates to me that your organization has gotten "mission creep" and has become "rigid".
Not a formula for a successfull decade. My
prediction is your organization will be replaced
by another review method within a few years if not sooner. Your reviewers have gottenbig heads
from some of the posts I have read by them and
I get a sense they are cocky. You can take this for what it is worth or fall by the wayside as many other organizations have.
Posted at 10:12AM on Feb 16th 2010 by Robert Henry
16. In 2008 began developing a very large medical supply store. It is a very high quality site that discounts products. I was told to submit the site to DMOZ. I continually get crtiqued on the fact that the site is not in DMOZ. Recently, a programmer wrote me this note.
"By the way, DMOZ takes forever - resubmitting probably won't help either. It's human/volunteer edited, and probably the category manager (if there is one) is one of your competitors, so it may never get added. I've seen this in the past." Please tell me that this is not true. If this is not true, can someone explain what we are doing wrong? All I have ever heard is nice things about DMOZ, I am assuming that my experiences are isolated. Thank you. I would appreciate knowing the answer.
Posted at 2:04PM on Feb 16th 2010 by Mary
17. great information.............
Posted at 1:59AM on Feb 19th 2010 by bhuvan
18. i want add my site in dmoz.org please any body tell me how can i submit my site in dmoz.org
Posted at 5:26AM on Feb 26th 2010 by Deepak
19. I believe in DMOZ but it is clear from the comments above that the process of getting a site registered or becoming an editor lacks transparency. Why? Surely a system that is not run for commercial gain needs transparency if it is to reach the aspirations of it's editor in chief. I too have tried to submit a site previously without success, but is it because I have tried to place it in the wrong category or is it for some of the more sinister reasons, as suggested in other comments? Who knows; and there lies the problem.
Posted at 6:44PM on Feb 26th 2010 by Nick Oakley
20. good information for me
Posted at 8:17AM on Feb 28th 2010 by lopo cendana