Back in 1998, there was no directory to the whole web. The idea of robots being able to collect all of the data needed was just a possibility – one that frightened some people. That’s why dmoz, or “Direct MOZilla” was formed by a team of web gurus who felt that the best listings ultimately had to be reviewed by humans.
As the most reliable directory, dmoz quickly became the most relied upon directory on the web. Despite the automatic listings, even google’s main portal relies on someone being first listed in dmoz, as do about 2,000 other directories. And as the web has grown, so has the complexity of a task relegated to volunteers. To my mind, the editors have exhibited signs of shell-shock in recent years, although many webmasters describe their behavior as simply arrogant. Certainly, the load they carry is a big one.
The main focus of the wrath, or indifference, of the editors has fallen on REALTORs. They comprise one of the largest, if not the largest, group of independent professional business people who are increasingly relying on the web to run their business. In 2004, the volume of website requests caused editors to no longer promise a listing in less than a few months, with no ability to perform a status check to see how it is going.
Who was to blame for this? Editors cite REALTORS and their websites, many of which are rejected as “scams” immediately. The professional REALTORs do not see it this way. But the result of this battle has been that it is nearly impossible to list a new real estate site on the web in the same way other sites are listed. The divide between webmasters and dmoz has worsened since that time.
Fast-forward to about six weeks ago, when dmoz went down for a “technical problem”. It has yet to return. This has caused the speculation that “dmoz is dead” to increase, and the calls for google and other directories to abandon it have become deafening. Is dmoz dead?
The short answer is that, no, it’s not dead. It’s still worth pursuing a listing on dmoz, because the additional listings it can bring across the globe are instrumental in increasing the links to your site, and thus the pagerank. A higher pagerank means that your site is listed higher in google, and that remains the goal of any webmaster. But you cannot rely on dmoz any longer to list your site, especially if you are a REALTOR. And that means that you will never have a complete listing in google, among other directories.
What can you do? The options are not good. The best thing you can do is to run a good, clean site and accept that while many people talk about “internet time” as if it was the blink of an eye, search engines take months and even years to even approach optimization. That’s partly by design, because it’s widely assumed that good businesses will last out that time long after scams have gone away. While that’s a good theory, it cuts against the promise of the web and the ability to compete with bigger competitors. Ultimately, it’s REALTORS that pay the price more than anyone.
