The search engine and the directory.

[kgun]

Not all web masters and surfers know that Google have its own web directory. And even less may know this:

<cite>
When would I use the Google directory instead of Google's regular web search?

• The good news is that you don't need to choose between the two. Google's regular web search results are enhanced by information from the Google directory. Look for the addition of editorial descriptions and links to Google directory categories in some search returns. These additions mean that Google has found relevant information about that particular page in the directory and is bringing it to you. Click on the link to find similar pages in the same category or to find other categories like the one for your result. While Google's regular web search is likely the fastest way to find information on a specific subject, the Google directory is particularly useful when you're not sure how to narrow your search from a broad category. The directory can help you understand how topics within a specific area are related and may suggest terms that are useful in conducting a search. It can also give you an idea of the scope of a given category, such as the number of newspapers in California.
  Google's directory engine also lets you search within a category once you've decided on the specific subsection of the web that interests you. In this way, you'll get only responses that fall within that category. For example, you may want to search for teams named "Cougars" within the college basketball section of the directory only, instead of across the entire web.
  Finally, you might prefer to use the directory when you only want to see sites that have been evaluated by an editor. The Open Directory project has 20,000 volunteer editors reviewing websites and classifying them by topic. Google's search technology lets you arrange those sites by their importance instead of alphabetically, which means you'll get the benefit of both human judgment and a sophisticated ranking algorithm.

Web Pages Ordered by PageRank

• Unlike other directories that can only list web pages alphabetically regardless of how good they are, the web pages in the Google directory are ordered according to Google's view of their importance. This means that the most relevant and highly-regarded sites on any topic are listed first ... not buried deep within a list of other pages.

</cite>

Google Web Directory Help

[ctabuk]

And the bad news is that the results can be as wild and off topic as you could ever imagine.

As far as I can see, the search results do not show sites that have registered with the Directory. On 'Open Market Homebuy' I was 3rd and I have never entered the site to the Google Directory (I have others) - yet when I did my book which has two whole pages on serp with Google.com - I got gobbledygook

[activeco]

Originally Posted by kgun

Not all web masters and surfers know that Google have its own web directory.

Not quite so.
Google directory is DMOZ directory 'enhanced' with the Pagerank.
I wonder when it will be ceased.

[kgun]

Originally Posted by ctabuk

And the bad news is that the results can be as wild and off topic as you could ever imagine.

As far as I can see, the search results do not show sites that have registered with the Directory. On 'Open Market Homebuy' I was 3rd and I have never entered the site to the Google Directory (I have others) - yet when I did my book which has two whole pages on serp with Google.com - I got gobbledygook

David. Interesting observations. It is difficult to know how the directory is used by Google.

Are you listed in dmoz?

Search Engine Chart

[martty]

Originally Posted by kgun

Not all web masters and surfers know that Google have its own web directory. And even less may know this:
<(cut)
Google Web Directory Help

Thats years old and sadly in need of updating. It from the days when Google used to include the category of the google directory in the search results display if a site was listed in the directory. That stopped displaying that years ago when there research showed that not many searchers were clicking on it and it was valuable real estate to waste.

[kgun]

Originally Posted by martty

Thats years old and sadly in need of updating. It from the days when Google used to include the category of the google directory in the search results display if a site was listed in the directory. That stopped displaying that years ago when there research showed that not many searchers were clicking on it and it was valuable real estate to waste.

Completely agree.

My conclusion after having manually checked about 1/10 of the links in my collection. It is very difficult to automatically check them for content change with tools like CyberWatcher (Norwegian) and Find broken links on your site with Xenu's Link Sleuth (TM) You may have linked to an article that you liked and would like to share with your visitors. Later that article redirects to a site that will never get a link in my collection. My link is no longer semantic and is is out of context. So you are who you link to.

For that reason a manually surveyed directory should be very important as a feed to any SE unless it is very sophisticated. I have also found such links in dmoz. So I am not alone.

[ctabuk]

Originally Posted by kgun

David. Interesting observations. It is difficult to know how the directory is used by Google.

Are you listed in dmoz?

Search Engine Chart

My home page of my home site is, but I gave up on DMOZ issues years ago. I don't even believe in submitting new sites there.

I prefer wiki and I receive hits from it.

[kgun]

Here is a very important article:

Directories to Avoid that Don't pass pagerank.