Why does this site have 2930 multiple listings?

In this thread started by someone who wanted multiple listings for products from his company , it's stated that ODP doesn't usually allow multiple listings, at least not for sites/pages with only products listings.

I would have to say I agree with ODP on this issue. If you are ever going to change this policy, please let me know in good time <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />

However, doing a search for "epinion" at dmoz.org, this returns 2929 hits, 2930 hits when searching for "epinion.com". I haven't actually looked through all of the results, some of them may not actually be from Epinions.

Epinions is a huge site, but it strikes me that 2930 listings is a bit much. Especially since a majority of the listings I checked out returns a "page not found" error, redirects to some other page, or simply leads to a product page with an image of the product and price information.

How can this be? What's the policy on this?

Hmmm... I just tried the following search and got 39 results. THats a lot, bt it isnt 2930. Would you mind posting a link to the search you used?

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

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

with an "s"

Yeah, meanwhile seen that, but could not edit the above post, so here a new one:

I tried to look at some of the listings the search showed but most of them seem to be removed already. Keep in mind, search is back to 28th of september.

My apologies for not being thorough enough in my first post.


As mentioned earlier, the general search for "epinions.com":
http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=epinions.com

returns 2930 matches. The first match is the epinions.com homepage. The next two are:


Salmon Trout Steelheader Magazine
at: http://www.epinions.com/mags-Salmon_Trout_Steelheader
in: http://dmoz.org/Home/Consumer_Information/Arts_and_Entertainment/Magazines/S/

Looking in that category, there is 161 matches for epinions out of 161 listings (my note: the search says it's 166 matches in the cat).
The listing leads to a page with the title repeated, a product image, the text: "We found this product at 1 store. The lowest price is not available", - and a link to a link page listing 2 user reviews/feedbacks, which is the only thing remotely resembling true content.


Ability Magazine
at: http://www.epinions.com/mags-Ability
in: http://dmoz.org/Home/Consumer_Information/Arts_and_Entertainment/Magazines/A/

The same pattern as above, but with 125 matches out of 125 listings (my note: the search says it's 129 matches in the cat).



Now, searching for "epinions" + "electronics":
http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=epinions+electronics

This returns 9 matches. The first one listed:


Epinions.com: Outdoors Electronics
at: http://www.epinions.com/otdr-Electronics
in: http://dmoz.org/Home/Consumer_Information/Sports_and_Recreation/Outdoors_Electronics/

The cat does not exist anymore (not surprising, having a cat called Outdoor Electronics under Sports &amp; Recreation is overkill even for a huge directory like dmoz IMO), but going one level up I see two epinions.com listings, including this one. The link to Epinions redirects to a page with nothing else on it but subdirectory listings for this cat: "Backpacks (909), Camping &amp; Hiking, Canoes &amp; Kayaks (450), Climbing (294)", etc

The next listing for this search term:
Epinions: Electronics
at: http://www.epinions.com/elec
in: http://dmoz.org/Home/Consumer_Information/Electronics/

The category exists, and the link to Epinions does not redirect. But the link is to a subdirectory page with absolutely no content in this case as well.



It seems to me that Epinions have:
- 1 listing for their main homepage
- multiple listings for their main categories
- multiple listings for their sub categories
- multiple listings for their sub-sub categories, etc
- multiple listings for their product pages

It also seems to me that in some cases Epinions occupy entire subcategories at dmoz, with, as shown above, in some cases over 100 listings to product pages in those subcategories. Noone else is listed in those categories.

I'm not editing so it's difficult for me to know how many listings for Epinions there will be after the next update. However, I see that windharp in his post above mentioned that 39 listings is a lot, and the current 2930 is a lot more than that. And I don't expect Epinions to drop from 2930 to 39 in one update.


So I'm still wondering, what's is the policy on this? Does this mean I can have my product pages listed as well if they are review pages (true review pages, not like those at Epinions)?

Re: Why does this site have 2930 multiple listings

Several questions:
1) Yes, the rules have changed.
2) epinions were a "PCP" -- that is, they worked out an arrangement with Netscape/ODP staff on those deeplinks. There have been (and still are) a few other PCPs, and there are still sites out there that would qualify under the current rules for PCP's, because (see #1)
3) PCP arrangements are subject to review. Some sites that used to be PCPs were cut off, and/or even had their deeplinks purged. I expect that epinions is about to get reviewed...if your sampling can be validated in a broader test, then epinions will probably be removed.
4) Can you get individual products listed if your pages include reviews? Well, there are one or two sites in front of you in the queue. When you see all of amazon.com's book pages listed, come check again. Until then, please wait patiently.