http://www.findgift.com/

Hi. For a long time, http://www.findgift.com was listed in the following category http://www.dmoz.com/Shopping/Gifts/Gift_Registry/. Recently, I discovered that it had been removed from that category and from DMOZ altogether.

I think the gift registry category was a good category for our service, though I believe that the http://www.dmoz.com/Home/Consumer_Information/Gifts_and_Greetings/ would be the most relevant category for us.

We resubmitted to http://www.dmoz.com/Home/Consumer_Information/Gifts_and_Greetings/ over a month ago and wanted to check in to see its status. Thanks!

t was added a long time ago, while we were still focused on vstore spammers, and before we'd caught on to the SMC/giftworld crew. By our current rules, it is not eligible for listing. If you see other SMC/giftworld-based sites still listed, please let us know so that we can remove them also.

Actually, we are not affilated with vstore, SMC or other. We are a free gift idea recommendation service. Below, is a link to our Bosses Day gift guide and our Advanced Gift Finder which should provide an example of what we do and how we are unique...

http://www.findgift.com/Holidays/Bosses-Day/
http://www.findgift.com/Services/Gift-Finder/

I have programmed the site myself. Our site is not a cookie cutter and our content is unique to our service. I do know of one site who had a similar name to ours that was a vstore; maybe that is where the confusion came in.

Thanks for your help!

You may not be affiliated with vStore or SMC, but how do you explain Busy Nest Online, Eco-Artware.com, and TWAcomm.com; all of which you have products for?

I would suggest reading http://dmoz.org/guidelines/include.html#affiliate

I read the link thanks. After reading this, I believe that our service is unique and offers unique content.

We have over 360 online stores listed with us. These are companies that have enrolled with us. We have a couple of legacy affiliate agreements in place, though we have not signed up any affiliates (linkshare, cj, etc) in nearly 3 years.

Our mission is to help people think of creative and unique gift ideas (that are sold through other stores). Many people do not have a clue to what to get their girlfriend for Valentine's Day, or what to get their Boss for Bosses Day. That is where we help people. See Alexa comments about us, via link below...

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/?url=findgift.com

We also offer...

* A free gift registry service that can include gifts from any website; they can even enter generic ideas (ex. Blue Jeans size 34x36) to their registry.

* Free email reminders for anniversaries, birthdays, etc.

* Gift idea bookmarks where users can organize and remember their gift ideas for other people

Our free consumer service has been written up (or shown on) in the Wall Street Journal, Bridal Guide Magazine, PC Magazine, Tech TV, Internet Retailer, Smart Computing, The Washington Post, and CNN Headline News.

Our business model is very similar to the following...

www.surprise.com (in same directory we are applying to)
www.dealtime.com
(their value added is price comparision, ours is ranking over 8,000 gift ideas by popularity in over 4,000 situational categories -- Christmas > for Her > for Girlfriend > Wacky)
www.givingcenter.com (same directory we are applying to)
www.postwish.com (gift registry section)
www.justwish.com (gift registry section)
www.giftregistry21.com (gift registry section)
www.mysimon.com
www.froogle.com
www.shopper.cnet.com

BTW - It looks like the Gomez.com link is no longer present and now it redirects to a seemingly unrelated page.

Please consider us for inclusion in this category. I believe that we have a very helpful resource for the gift shopper. Thanks!

Sorry, Shopping categories are not for "helpful resources for shoppers." They are for websites of companies that sell retail. If you don't have such a company, there's no way you can build a site that is eligible for listing there.

Please report violations of this guideline (whether attributable to editor error, abuse, hijack, all of the above, or unknown) in the "Abuse" forum. We try to fix them quickly.

If you need to be a retailer that actually sells products to be listed under "Consumer Information: Gifts and Greetings", then I understand. In that case, hopefully the other non-retailers will also be relocated from that section as well -- seeing those companies is where my confusion over this section started.

Though, seeing this to be the case, can our service be listed within the gift registry section, link below?

http://www.dmoz.com/Shopping/Gifts/Gift_Registry/

We do offer a free gift registry service and it is a very significant part of our service (we originlly started as a gift registry only company). Our free gift registry has been operational for over 6 years.

This gift registry section does appear to contain many Umbrella Gift Registry services similar to ours that do not actually sell products. In fact, having an open gift registry that does not restrict the gift registry to a certain set of stores gives the registry much more flexibility.

Thanks again for your consideration.

If that is your original focus and a primary one -- and featured prominently on the page [I don't recall noticing it, but it was a brief look and I've reviewed dozens of sites outside my areas of interest since then], then the category you suggest sounds reasonable. Resubmit to that category, with a note to the editor [in brackets like this at the end of the suggested description] saying what you just said.

No guarantee of listing, as always.

And (as per usual in this forum) you can bump this thread after a month to get a current status.

Thanks hutcheson. I appreciate you taking the time to help me on this one. The gift registry is one of our core services.

Though, to be honest I still think that "Consumer Information: Gifts and Greetings" is the most relevant category for our service. I could be confused, but I have looked at this category again and out of the 9 companies currently listed there, not one of them appears to be an actual retailer.

Could you recheck this category (link provided below) and let me know if this is a category only for companies that actually sell products, or if it is for companies that do not sell products, but instead provide services to help consumers make purchase decisions by providing them with ideas/information?

http://www.dmoz.com/Home/Consumer_Information/Gifts_and_Greetings/

Thanks.

Hi. I am resubmitting my last question again as it looks like it may have been lost in the shuffle.

My question concerns the category shown below...

http://www.dmoz.com/Home/Consumer_Information/Gifts_and_Greetings/

Is this category only for companies that actually sell products? Or is it for companies that do not sell products, but instead provide services to help gift shoppers by providing them with ideas/information/tools?

I was previously told on this board that it was only for companies that actually sell products. But in reviewing the category and the name of the category, this does not seem right. Thanks.

You mentioned several categories in your first post. The advice you received that

Shopping categories are not for "helpful resources for shoppers."

Click to expand...

refers, as stated, to categories under Shopping and is correct as written. Consumer information categories should not contain sites which sell products or services.

The other category mentioned in my first post was to provide case history. Our site used to be listed in the gift registry area.

The best category that is a great match for our service is...

http://www.dmoz.com/Home/Consumer_Information/Gifts_and_Greetings/

The above is a consumer information category for gifts. We do not sell any products, but instead are a free service that helps people find creative and unique gift ideas for over 4,000 situational gift giving occasions/circumstances (ranked by popularity). For example, below is one of our categories for Wacky Christmas Gift Ideas for your Grandma...

http://www.findgift.com/Holidays/Christmas/Her/Grandma/Wacky/

I provide more detail on our service within the 5th post within this thread -- posting #49697.

I think that our free service would be an excellent addition to that category. I would like to see if we can be considered for that category. We did submit to that category over 30 days ago.

A site which sells gifts directly will be considered for a listing in a subcategory of the gift shopping category.

A site which offers information about gift buying without either selling gifts or directing traffic to sites which sell gifts will be considered for a listing in the information category.

A site which exists to drive traffic to other sites which sell gifts will not be considered for a listing.

A thread which becomes an argument about the listing of a site will be locked.

I wasn't looking to argue. Just seeking clarity. Originally, I was told that it was an affiliation with SMC, v-store or equivalent that was the issue.

Then, it was because we were an affiliate site. I read the guidelines and know that our service is much more than just a pass-through point and was adding significant value (and less than %1 of our offering is affiliate).

Then, I was told that we could not get in because we did not sell any products, and only retailers could be in there. The category we were trying to submit to was a consumer information category, so I was confused.

Once I received confirmation that it was open for companies that do not sell products, I was seeking a response to the additional information we provided about us being a good consumer resource.

Coupled with the fact that our main competitor (who has a nearly identical business model to us) is already listed in this category, I felt that we should have been a good candidate for consideration.

Though, your response indicates that this category really was not meant for us (or our competitor). If that is the current policy for that category, then I understand.

I would like to follow this up with a question...

Our service (and that of our competitors) does serve a helpful purpose. Many gift shoppers do need help thinking of gift ideas. A recent study by Circuit City found that the #2 frustration among holiday shoppers was not knowing what to buy (#1 was crowded shopping malls).

Most gift retailers have a narrow, focused product line -- they are not set up to help a diverse audience of people in finding gift ideas.

Would you consider adding a sub-category for "Gift Ideas" underneath http://www.dmoz.com/Home/Consumer_Information/Gifts_and_Greetings/ ?

I'd even volunteer to be its editor and would immediately include every competitor that I know of.