Good Day jamesl-ga,
mvguy-ga is correct in stating that dmoz.org is not the only place
Google takes it's information from. Probably the bulk of the websites
on Google have been gathered by Google Robots that crawl the Internet
in search of new information. As you already know a dmoz.org listing
is not necessary in order for Google to consider your website for a
potential search result.
There is a big advantage to acquiring a dmoz.org listing. Once you are
already listed on Google, a dmoz.org listing will improve your
PageRank (PR)*. Many believe that a dmoz.org listing can be a heavy
positive influence on your website's PR. Unfortunately very few people
actually know the Google algorithm, and Google Researchers are not
part of that select group... this information should be considered
nothing more then educated speculation.
Aside of the potential PR advantage, Google search results that exist
in the dmoz.org directory have additional "Description" and "Category"
information. If you are not sure what I mean, head over to Google.com,
and perform a search for "jobs". You will see that result #1
(monster.com) and #2 (jobs.com) have Description and Category
information, where the #3 (hotjobs.com) result does not. This
additional information comes from a listing in dmoz.org. With a
dmoz.org listing you have a better chance of being found on Google for
relevant search results.
Since your question involves dmoz and not Google, let me get back on
track here, and answer your question.
Dmoz.org is based on volunteer efforts. Volunteer editors are assigned
to each category. Editors are in charge of visiting the websites
submitted to their category, and approving or denying a link. Due to
the fact that these are all volunteers, some categories go without an
editor for many months. Listings for those sections get neglected due
to lack of man power.
Although I cannot find it anywhere on the dmoz.org website, one of the
dmoz.org editors I am in contact with informed me that each website
can have two listings: one regional, and one industrial.
I would recommend submitting your site to both regional and industrial
sections. Hopefully one of these has an active volunteer editor
assigned to it, and you will finally get a listing.
The dmoz.org editors do have a public online meeting place at the ODP
Submission Discussion forums. Anyone can sign up and post a message on
the forum. There, you might be able to get an update on the status of
the editor in your category.
Website: Open Directory Project (ODP) Submission Discussions
URL: http://www.resource-zone.com/
I am assuming that you have read the submission guidelines that are
made available when submitting a website at dmoz.org, and that you are
following the guidelines correctly. If this is the case, it really
sounds like the editor for the category you are submitting to has
left, and no one replaced him/her. Again, the folks at the forum will
be able to help you more directly, and give you the inside information
you require.
The information I provided is based on personal experience in the
industry. Any additional information can be acquired through the ODP
forum. Although I have not participated in the forum myself, many of
my colleagues have. They all agree that the ODP volunteers are
generally very helpful, and tend to answer most questions very quickly
and professionally.
* PageRank (PR) Explained
Website: Google Technologies
URL: ://www.google.com/technology/
Additional information on PageRank
Website: Google's PageRank Explained and how to make the most of it
URL: http://www.webworkshop.net/pagerank.html
I hope that my answer gives you all the necessary tools to a
successful listing at dmoz.org. Please do not hesitate to ask for a
clarification should any information I provided be not clear, or
missing.
Regards,
slawek-ga |
