DMOZ's searching engine is so weak

ebizcamp · May 18, 2004

Although DMOZ has 5 million links (or more?), its searching engine is very weak.

Say, search paypal, I even cannot get paypal's official site;

But Paypal's official site is in this category:

/Business/Financial_Services/Banking_Services/Electronic_Cash/

Search TOEFL (a popular ESL test), No Open Directory Project results found! But there are lots of sites, for instance:

/Arts/Education/Language_Arts/English/English_as_a_Second_Language/Examinations/

Why?

donaldb · May 18, 2004

You get what you pay for

There is actually quite a bit of discussion on this forum about the current state of the search process (it's busted) - search here for search and you'll find an answer.

hutcheson · May 19, 2004

Well, even when ODP search is working, it isn't what a Yahoo or Google user expects. If you think of it as a SITE SEARCH of the dmoz.org domain, it's not bad. If you think of it as a www search, you're often going to be disappointed. (Although for, say, Junior High School - level informational queries, it will often beat anything else on the net, including Encyclopedia Britannica, hands down.)

You wanna build a better DMOZ search? Maybe supported by Google AdSense? Download the RDF and have at it. A lot of editors will try it out; if it's any good at all, a lot of editors will use it -- we'd even send the webmaster questions your way.

bjorn · Jul 1, 2004

What do you mean you can't find PayPal if you search for 'paypal'?

http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=paypal

.. gives a lot of data, including the official PayPal.com site (no 3).

I do agree that the search is weak however. But it's a lot of data (1.7GB), try searching throug it with "description LIKE('%java%')" and you'll see it takes time.

- Bjørn

megri · Jul 4, 2004

I think search is not so bad as it is a directory it gives the concerned directory pages also in search to find correct page. However some time overload error comes while searching

jaydilla · Jul 30, 2004

ODP isnt a place to really search for a product or site anyway it is more of a tool to help a site reach high SE rankings with the major search engines. It's simple the more inbound links you have the higher your SE ranking will be........................if you have good content as well.........so i look at ODP as a helping tool to acheive high SE ranking with the major search engines which in turn will bring higher traffic to your site. ODP is just fine as it is

brmehlman · Jul 30, 2004

it is more of a tool to help a site reach high SE rankings with the major search engines.

Wishful thinking. That may well be what you want us to be, but what we are is a directory of the web.

pudsey · Jul 30, 2004

That may well be what you want us to be, but what we are is a directory of the web.

Being realistic though how many people use DMOZ as a directory? I'd reckon that the higher percentage of visitors are webmasters trying to get listed to help with there ranking in Google.

Personally though I use it to do research, and used it recently to find resources to help me learn Spanish

I'd also agree about the search, but I never use that anyway, just easier to find the category I want and click away.

Darren

hutcheson · Jul 30, 2004

This is one of those issues where all can agree, I think. ODP search is pretty feeble, although if you know what you're after, you can sometimes find things very quickly with it. The ODP data dump is open to all, and anyone can try to create a better search. AOL, Hotbot, and Google all have tried. Only Google's effort remains, and it may well be hard to compete with.

But -- if someone wants to try, there will be a good many editors joining the webmasters in the rush to check it out.

jaydilla · Jul 31, 2004

I agree ODP has its place on the web. It is a very important resource for publishers

yogenmaniyar · Sep 28, 2004

Slow Searches

Can we make ODP paid at nominal fees and improve the services??

arubin · Sep 28, 2004

No. No.

mbhmirc · Dec 17, 2004

yogenmaniyar said:
Can we make ODP paid at nominal fees and improve the services??

why don't you just get the ODP data and do it yourself

If you want something done better do it that way, I think they have enough hastle with the huge amount of submisions.

kokopeli · Dec 18, 2004

Can we make ODP paid at nominal fees and improve the services??

The fact that this is not an option is the draw, IMO. I spend hours and hours of my personal time for free. If someone was making money off my free work I might not be so willing to pitch in, and I imagine others feel this way. Our "work" is offered for free to anyone who wants to comply with our license:

The Open Directory was founded in the spirit of the Open Source movement, and is the only major directory that is 100% free. There is not, nor will there ever be, a cost to submit a site to the directory, and/or to use the directory's data. The Open Directory data is made available for free to anyone who agrees to comply with our free use license.

It's a huge collaborative effort that benefits those who surf the web based on our data

downguy · Dec 21, 2004

After reading some of the comment above here is my input on what the ODP is and what makes it so valuable.

1. Free/Non-profit - You can't buy your way in
2. Human Edited - A person will have too look at your site too be included and with the process in place for being included you have too have something unique and quality.

This so why people want too be in this directory. It's kinda like a mark of quality. They have sacrficed being the "biggest" directory for having the most(on average) quality listings. In the age now where people will do just about anything too rank high in a SE this is a needed group of people to help wad through the hype. I love Open Source in any form. It's stands for people coming together for the greater good for good itself.

-downguy

bobrat · Dec 21, 2004

Just to clarify a misunderstanding some people have - ODP is not Open Source - you do not have access to the source code for the directory system.

It's also not open in the way some people understand, the internal editor forums are private, as are many other things.

The only thing that is open - is the public directory itself - under the published terms of use.

DMOZ's searching engine is so weak

ebizcamp

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donaldb

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hutcheson

bjorn

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megri

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jaydilla

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brmehlman

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pudsey

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hutcheson

jaydilla

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yogenmaniyar

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arubin

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mbhmirc

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kokopeli

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downguy

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bobrat

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