Bloggers Rejoice at End Of Dmoz

Many hours I have wasted trying to get websites included in DMOZ.

When I first began building websites, getting into DMOZ was seen as just about the best thing you could do - Guaranteed to raise the all important page rank.

The problem was that it just grew too unwieldy and you could be waiting for up to 2 years to have your site reviewed and possibly put in. If you dared complain about waiting two years you were given short shrift and threatened with permanent banning.

The other problem was the potential for corruption, editors wield enormous influence and so inevitably some were tempted by charging a market price for inclusion. Of course, these editors are in a minority and DMOZ always said it sought to weed out corrupt editors. But, if a site has such power, the temptation for using it for selfish ends is enormous.

I’m glad to see DMOZ is no longer of any importance or relevance. DMOZ can tell us many things.

The internet changes very quickly - What is an important SEO tactic one year, can become irrelevant the next.
Success on the internet is not about getting one arbitary link from an anonymous editor. Success comes from building readership and quality pages.
DMOZ rarely sent significant traffic. One way to value links is how many real visitors do they send?
Links from link Sites are always rather dubious. No one goes through web directories. Why bother, when it is much easier to search on google?
Who will want to be an editor at DMOZ now? If there is no personal gain, why spend hours going through sites (a lot of them probably spam) when nobody cares anymore.

DMOZ is on a downward slope and will soon be looked upon as a relic of the internet’s early days. ” I remember at the beginning of the internet - people used to think web directories were of value! ”

DMOZ will sink further into obscurity, but, nobody will miss it.

Postscript 

Dmoz temporarily dissappeared from Google searches, but, it ended up just being a result of a 301 redirect to the same page. See: DMOZ home page goes missing.

The interesting thing is how enthusiastic bloggers responded to the potential demise of DMOZ at Blogging Tips

Today, Darren Rowse offered a video about the unimportance of Page Rank

- I agree entirely, accept PR, is still of some importance when you’re trying to sell advertising.