the new ODP

If any search engine ever starts to use the ODP data all by it’s self I feel they’ll have made their biggest mistake. We all know why Google has had its success! They use multiple ways to rank sites. No one way will ever be perfect. But Google does use our descriptions. /images/icons/smile.gif

As a new, but seasoned editor, scott2121, I can tell you that I have no personal desire, whatsoever, to climb the ladder. I can see where it might be handy to have a little more freedom and priviledges to get certain work done, but, status for it's own sake, means nothing to me.

That may not be the case with other editors, but, who can blame them for following thier interests and wanting to enjoy more editing priviledges?

That's why we're here, to enjoy ourselves and try and do a good job of editing and placing sites, as well as, building categories.

Most of us are here to make the directory better, but, there are always the sneaks, who think they're smarter than the system and can use it to promote either themselves or thier affiliates. Those people, when they're caught and justly dismissed, would naturally be bitter and hold a grudge.

Then, I suppose there are others, who just can't follow the rules and work within the system or, who are just plain lousy editors who can't do the job. Those people are also asked to leave.

How the search engines use the work we do is unimportant to me. What's important is how well I do my job, as time permits me to, and how much I enjoy the editors I work with and the fun of creating something.

I'll leave the bigger issues to those who are qualified and knowledgible enough to deal with them, and, I'll trust thier integrity and motives.

Hi Darker:

you have to go back in the thread a bit, but what we are discussing is "search engines use of ODP data".

We are not talking about people visiting AOL and laboriously finger walking through hundreds of thousands of directory listings, but the enlightned use of the search box to find information, which on AOL will currently return information from the Inktomi database. I know its a hard pill to swallow but the fact is SEARCHERS on AOL will now get Inktomi data.

With regard to Google it seems that perhaps users and OPD editors use Google differently. Yes, I agree there is a Google directory and it is based on the ODP data feed, and yes, sometimes when the keyword matches a category Google does return a Google category listing, but for the great majority of the searches the only results seen are the results from Googles own database, ranked by their own algo.

I trust that it will come as no great surprise that the vast majority of SEARCHERS use the search box.

Mel,

It's not a surprise to me that many of the users of ODP use the Search form, I use it myself in order to find specific categories in the directory. But the ODP is not really made to be searched, it is made to be used as a directory, if I want truly relevant search I go to Google, because Google is a search engine.

On the AOL search page it says "Some results provided by Inktomi", I think what that means is that they have integrated the Inktomi data into the search results along with the ODP data. The first page that comes up at http://search.aol.com/ is a directory, forgive me if I am wrong but it looks very similiar to the ODP hierarchy.