ODP Search

J

Jello

Member
Joined
Jun 2, 2004
Messages
12
Thanks.
I know that I updated that URL today, but the 'old' one wasn't findable either. I had no clue to when the previous URL was added; hence, my question. Could you clarify with what frequency search catalogs are updated (just a matter of 'culture generale')?

Best regards
 
nea

nea

Meta & kMeta
Curlie Meta
Joined
Mar 28, 2003
Messages
5,872
Slight confusion of terminology here, I think. www.theneonjudgement.com/NE/ was added 6 days ago, and the ODP search engine hasn't had time to update since. As soon as it is updated, that URL will be searchable. www.neon-electronics.org is not listed - you submitted a request to update the theneonjudgement.com address to the neon-electronics.org one but it hasn't been reviewed by an editor yet. Everything you submit to the ODP goes through a human editor, and as all editors are volunteers the time until review can vary a lot.

We can't say anything about other directories, I'm afraid, since we simply don't know what they do, and we need to limit this forum to Open Directory matters. Try a discussion forum on search engines and directories in general - there are many such out there.
 
J

Jello

Member
Joined
Jun 2, 2004
Messages
12
Nea, the question was about the search on dmoz.org. I know that the directory is updated by humans (and it should stay that way). I know that I updated that URL today. What I didn't know was that the 'old' (but still valid) URL was added 6 days ago (didn't receive a notification about that) and that it wasn't indexed yet.
Thanks for the answer and sorry for any misunderstanding.

Regards
 
G

giz

Member
Joined
May 26, 2002
Messages
3,112
Search usually updates about 3 days after a "good" RDF file is generated from the database. The RDF generation is a background process that takes 3 or 4 days to generate that file and runs about once per week or so.

So, in general, everything in search is usually at least a week old when the search updates, maybe longer. It is rare these days to have less then two search updates in a calendar month, but if you work on the assumption that it is always at least a couple of weeks behind the "live" directory, then you'll rarely make an incorrect assumption about the status of a site listing.
 
D

DriWashSolution

Member
Joined
May 25, 2004
Messages
16
giz said:
Search usually updates about 3 days after a "good" RDF file is generated from the database. The RDF generation is a background process that takes 3 or 4 days to generate that file and runs about once per week or so.
Click to expand...

So is the RDF the data that others parties use for "searching" the ODP database?
 
H

hutcheson

Curlie Meta
Joined
Mar 23, 2002
Messages
19,136
Not necessarily, but anyone certainly can use it for that purpose. Well-behaved spiders are allowed to spider dmoz.org also. In general, we don't know what the other parties do.
 
J

Jello

Member
Joined
Jun 2, 2004
Messages
12
Search periodicity

Well,

the link still isn't included. When performing a search, I noticed that the
"Search database [was] last updated on: Mon Jun 7 19:28:14 EDT 2004"

Is this normal, because this is more than 3 to 4 days?
 
H

hutcheson

Curlie Meta
Joined
Mar 23, 2002
Messages
19,136
Go back and read the earlier post. It takes 3-4 days to update search. BUT SEARCH IS NEVER UPDATED MORE THAN ONCE A WEEK!

So, yes, it is normal -- at best, over half the time it will be more than 3 to 4 days after the last search update!

And yet, it is not unusual for it to be longer -- as someone said, lately it has been no more than once every two weeks. That implies, SOMETIMES LESS than once every two weeks. That means it has recently often been more than two weeks (plus, of course, 3-4 days) since the last search update.

We don't know when the next search update will be. But don't worry about it -- it really doesn't matter. Search is a convenience for editors, but hardly ever used by surfers.
 
J

Jello

Member
Joined
Jun 2, 2004
Messages
12
Well, I have read the earlier post, but if my calculations are right, then there are 9 weeks between now and the 7th of June.
I can image that the ODP search is "hardly ever used by surfers", but it is used by other search engines (at least the RDF data I suppose - I don't know). And other search engines ARE used by other surfers. So, the original problem remains.
 
D

dfc

Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2004
Messages
34
dmoz search cannot find URLs. I've tried about 30 different ones without any luck. It also fails to find keywords in descriptions.
 
H

hutcheson

Curlie Meta
Joined
Mar 23, 2002
Messages
19,136
>I can image that the ODP search is "hardly ever used by surfers", but it is used by other search engines (at least the RDF data I suppose - I don't know).

The RDF is being published.

Other search engines could conceivably use the RDF, although I don't know of any that do. (Google certainly doesn't -- it spiders dmoz.org!)

NO search engine uses ODP search! Remember that ODP search is based on the RDF, not the other way 'round. If other search engines DO use the RDF (which, as I say, at the moment probably isn't the case), they still wouldn't be affected at all by ODP search issues.
 
D

dfc

Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2004
Messages
34
bobrat said:
Can you give an example - it seems to work for me.
Click to expand...

I'll give you some examples that come to mind immediately (sites that I'm familiar with; the sites have been in dmoz for quite a while, some for months, others for years):

http://www.whatfear.com/
http://www.dentalfearcentral.com/
http://www.dentistry.com/
http://www.dentalphobia.com/
http://dentalfear.net/

All these sites are listed (under those URL's), yet in search, nothing shows up.

For some keyword examples (here we go again, the dental phobia vs dentophobia debate ;) - I'm still awaiting some feedback and would be grateful if someone could respond :) ), "dental phobia" will not show the sites listed in the category "dentophobia", even though the descriptions (http://dmoz.org/Health/Mental_Health/Disorders/Anxiety/Phobias/Dentophobia/) contain those keywords. Furthermore, when looking for the (rather obscure) term "dentophobia" (which, as pointed out before, is not used by anyone), nothing shows up, even though there is a category called "dentophobia".

Admittedly, I've only given examples which come to my mind, as I'm familiar with those sites and categories, but there does appear to be some problem with dmoz search.
 
bobrat

bobrat

Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2003
Messages
11,061
whatfear.com was added in June and the search is behind schedule as noted in other posts

same for dentalfearcentral.com

dentalphobia.com
dentistry.com
dentalfear.net
are all found when I search for them

[added]
And all the search for the category name etc. will not work since the category itself was only created in June :)
 
D

dfc

Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2004
Messages
34
very odd. Might be a browser problem?
What about the keyword searches?
 
D

dfc

Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2004
Messages
34
yeah, the same just occurred to me :) I'm fast asleep here ;) - thanks for the reply. Anyway, could you help me regarding the category renaming issue?
 
This site has been archived and is no longer accepting new content.
Top