Netscape -- Please help DMOZ

You need more servers, better architecture and/or to block excess/automated inquiries.

For weeks 100% of my searches turn up with "The Open Directory search is temporarily unavailable. Please try back later." Maybe I'm just unlucky in love with you, DMOZ?

(I'm just about to send this message, and finally, for the first time in a long time, I get DMOZ.org to actually work when I enter a search.)

Well, if you are judging the performace of the ODP based on the search engine, that is a pity.

The ODP isn't supposed to be a search engine - it's a directory - you nagivate through categories to find the data you are looking for.

The search feature is an under-powered add-on, mostly to help editors find stuff.

If you need to actually search, we would strongly suggest using one of the many web sites that use the ODP data to build a search engine.

However, if you want to start a campaign for AOL/Time-Warner (the people who own Netscape) to put more funds and support into the ODP, I don't think you'll find many objecting The current paid staff are very definitely over-worked and under-paid.

Thx for your response, which is similar to what the the FAQ says. At self:

ODP is a directory, of course, but I would argue that the search feature is critical...
For a user, search helps broaden your search so that you find results in overlapping categories.
For ODP itself and for submitters, search helps submissions go to the best category. Also, it helps submitters avoid pestering someone on this forum to know if their site has been accepted. (Sure, they ought to keep records of all submissions, and know which category it went into, but many did not.)

I didn't know about ODP clones, although it's not surprising since there are so many Google clones. I'll see if I can find one, unless it's OK to add a link. (By the way, I've noticed that you cannot use Google's cache as a DMOZ mirror -- Google produces no result for: "site:dmoz.org '(search criteria)'".)

ApexDude said:

I didn't know about ODP clones, although it's not surprising since there are so many Google clones. I'll see if I can find one, unless it's OK to add a link. (By the way, I've noticed that you cannot use Google's cache as a DMOZ mirror -- Google produces no result for: "site:dmoz.org '(search criteria)'".)

Click to expand...

It's off topic for this forum, but I've used Google search restricted to dmoz.org without much trouble.....

DMOZ search is also cranky in some respects if you can get it to work. And I can see the point about finding categories - there are some very useful ones deep into the structure which I can only find through the search function - editors have the exact same problem with availability though.

Interestingly we are owned by AOL Time Warner and the AOL site's search is powered/enhanced by Google. Anyway, as alucard indicated, using the search facilities on one of our clones is usually more effective. Sadly.

http://search.aol.com/aolcom/browseIndex will sometimes return Google directory categories (but not the AOL or DMOZ ones). Weird.

I didn't know about ODP clones, although it's not surprising since there are so many Google clones

Click to expand...

If you are talking about directories, Google's is the clone. ODP is the original.

As for a link.... http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/.../Open_Directory_Project/Sites_Using_ODP_Data/ has a listing of all the known sites that use the ODP data (of which Google is one). Some are complete clones, some are not. Some have search engines attached to them, some don't.

Last year, ODP search was coming under increasingly heavy load -- part of it apparently automatic DDOS attacks from the likes of WebPosition Pro -- or whatever. Netscape added several more search servers, including one dedicated to editors, and made some attempts to cut down on the automated attacks. But today Netscape's attitude seems to be: "there's enough sand in the sandbox for everyone, if you just play nice. And if you all hoard sand, we'll take our sandbags and go home."

It's a pity that SERP jerks drag the whole system down by doing repeated searches for sites that they already know about ... every hour on the hour.... even though what they find out cannot possibly change their planned course of action in any conceivable way ... but that's the gene latrine for you.

At this point, I think everybody is going to have to live with the DDOS these jerks cause -- just like we all have to live with spam, spyware, and the other electronic manifestations of Original Sin.

Thanks for the info (and commiseration), folks.

By Google clones, I meant the search results. A lot of clones just taking certain Google results and using those to create pages...

Still seems like there is a technical solution to this out there...

On the plus side, I'm finding search working more often than it has in the past.