DMOZ Blog

This week, we're presenting the first in an occasional series of posts that highlight a different section of the directory. Today, we're focusing on Kids and Teens, and editor artisands has provided a great overview of this fantastic family resource.
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Kids and Teens was developed as a standalone section of the Open Directory Project (ODP) in November of 2000. The goal of this "directory within a directory" was to provide a kid-safe area that would cater to the specific needs of the under 18 age group. Kids and Teens has its own set of guidelines, forums, and senior editorial staff.

This top level section of the directory lists sites for kids, not about kids. Some highlights include the School Time section which offers a wide range of sites providing help with homework questions in a variety of subject areas. Internet Safety offers valuable tips to kids and teens on staying safe while surfing the Web. The Health category provides information about physical and emotional health, including safety, fitness, and healthy lifestyles. These are just a few examples and all of the categories are worth a look!

In October of 2007, the listings in Kids and Teens surpassed 45,000! This milestone was reached thanks to the combined efforts of the dedicated editors who work very hard to build and maintain this special directory. Much of the growth can also be attributed to the expansion of the International branch, which boasts over 16,000 sites in 34 languages.

Another unique aspect of Kids and Teens is the use of "age tags". Sites are evaluated based on the appropriateness of content for three age groups:

Kids (12 years and younger)
Teens (13-15 years)
Mature Teens (16-18 years)

These tags appear right after the title in the directory listing, which is helpful to users in selecting age appropriate sites to visit. The ODP also provides a selection of search engines geared towards kids which can be found linked at the bottom of the category pages.

Since this is regarded as a separate directory, it is often possible to find sites listed in both the Classic directory and in Kids and Teens. This will happen when a useful, content-rich informational site is found that would provide value to both directories. So, when suggesting sites for the Kids and Teens directory, keep in mind that there may also be a comparable "Classic" category. A second suggestion in this case may be appropriate. Another point to remember is that commercial and/or shopping sites are not listed in Kids and Teens.

If you have ever given thought to becoming a ODP volunteer editor, consider applying for a small category in Kids and Teens. All you need is a little spare time and the desire and ability to find, describe, and list great "Kid Safe" websites.

A lot of the feedback we see on the blog actually has to do more with house keeping questions about DMOZ than with the topics we're covering. This week, we hope to clear up some of the confusion by highlighting the great resources that already exist to answer the most common questions.

Happy New Year! You probably see some of us in the forums, but behind the scenes, there are a lot of people working hard on this project, so we thought we'd kick off 2009 with an introduction to our core team.

Bob Keating, DMOZ Editor-in-Chief (rdkeating25)
A search nerd with a deep love and appreciation for opinionated masses, Bob Keating is the ODP's Editor in Chief, and has been involved with the ODP since joining AOL in 1999. He oversees the community and editorial policies, and regales his colleagues with anecdotes from annals of ODP history.

Photo of Grant

Grant Belaire, Director - Audience Growth (bbqgrant)
"I've had the pleasure of supporting the ODP/DMOZ community for more than a year and a half. Initially, I acted as a conduit from the forums back to the AOL management. As time went on I also helped in the creation of the DMOZ Blog, collaborated with AOL Corporate Communications to work on the various topics that come up with DMOZ in the headline, aided in the evangelism of DMOZ to all parts of AOL and led the release Beta Release of DMOZ. I care about the community and the experience we provide because I think that authoritative, subject matter experts CAN provide an experience on par and in certain circumstances far superior to the algorithmic search. And DMOZ is by far the single best example of that on this planet...or any other that I am aware of : ) If you ever have a question about DMOZ or an idea that could be improved by the resources we have, I'd love to hear from you. "

Emily Kayser, Senior Program Manager - Audience Growth (emi1y)
"If you read this blog or spend any time in the editors' forums, you probably know me as the DMOZ blog manager. Since I joined this team about 6 months ago, I've worked primarily on setting up a posting process and editorial calendar. I've really enjoyed the opportunity to work collaboratively with editors from around the world and to work towards making the official blog more representative of the entire community. Behind the scenes, I've also been involved in the DMOZ 2.0 project. I am looking forward to continuing to build on our success in 2009."

Dave Shebat, Technical Project Manager (dmozpjm)
"I joined the AOL Search organization in early 2008 and one of my many new assignments was to help manage the in-flight ODP/DMOZ 2.0 platform upgrade – huh? What on earth is "ODP/DMOZ" and who is Mozzie? So, to better understand what exactly I was getting myself into I started studying the corporate wiki's and documentation, surfed the net for additional information, became an editor and asked Grant way too many questions. To my delight, I felt like I was opening a treasure chest. After working at AOL for almost 10 years and spending time in every corner of the company, I thought I had seen it all; however, one of the crown jewels of the net had been hiding right under my nose all along. I find DMOZ to be incredibly fascinating and hope to contribute more to its bright future. Now, with all its renewed interest and recent improvements, I predict 2009 will be the year of the Mozzie!"

Zhuo Zhang, Developer (aptor)
"My name is Zhuo Zhang. In DMOZ 2.0, my main responsibility is developing code for this project, writing documentation and installation guidelines, and other necessary tasks. I also cooperate with our QA team, helping them to execute the test cases. Additionally, in order to ensure the quality of our project, I communicate a lot with the editor community via the DMOZ forum. Being a part of DMOZ 2.0 is really exciting and challenging. I receive various kinds of help and support from all around the globe. The history and the future of DMOZ make me very proud of my work."

For our final post of 2008, we're highlighting the accomplishments that the editor community has made over the course of the year. Thanks again to everyone who has contributed his or her time and effort to this project this year! We look forward to a great 2009.

International Expansion & Improvements
Update to the Vietnamese Category

This has been a year of rebuilding and change for DMOZ. In the wake of the 2006 outage, a new team was assembled at AOL to ensure that the directory received the attention and support that it deserved. In 2008, this team continued the process of rebuilding both the technical infrastructure and the trust of the editor community, as well as taking a fresh new look at how DMOZ could gain additional exposure for the project by partnering with our other corporate properties.

We began to see these efforts pay off in 2008. Engineers from AOL's Beijing office have been working tirelessly to rebuild and modernize the DMOZ infrastructure to support greater flexibility and growth of the next phase of the ODP. The staff team has worked hard to create a more open line of communication with the editors as well as to improve transparency between the DMOZ community and the public via this blog. While it will take time to overcome the understandable mistrust of the past, this first step has been very positive. And finally, we've worked to raise awareness of the directory within AOL and we've got several exciting new projects underway that will help improve the user experience for our very diverse group of users. We look forward to sharing more information about these as they get closer to launch.

So, at the end of a year that had a decidedly rocky start, we're happy to say that DMOZ is very much alive and well. It's been a very busy year with a lot of positive momentum, and I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we're very grateful to our editors for their continued hard work. We're looking forward to a very productive and exciting 2009.