Don’t Forget About Us, The Web Directories, by Barry Schwartz, Search Engine Land (May 5)
Dmoz (Open Directory) is the main item - it wonders why it doesn't get respect. Schwartz's comments make it pretty clear that the volunteer editors are often prone to bias if not enticements. There are other "web directories" mentioned here - but none I would recommend.
Keeping web directories up to date with good selections is a lot of work, and the volunteers get very little recognition for their efforts. Search engine algorithms figure in links from directories when ranking results, but the directory does not get the credit. Editors would surely be tempted to add sites for a fee. A social bookmarking service that shows ranking by popularity could easily outperform a directory now for currency and quality. My bet is that web directories will be of diminishing usefulness.
Posted by Gwen at May 8, 2009 08:56 PM