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DMOZ

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Netesq (talk | contribs) at 15:09, 10 December 2002. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Open Directory Project (ODP), also known as DMoz (for Directory.Mozilla), is a massive, human-maintained open content directory of World Wide Web links owned by AOL.

The ODP was originally Gnuhoo (then Newhoo after protests from the GNU Project), an independent effort to construct an alternative to Yahoo. It obtained its current name after purchase by Netscape.

The Open Directory data is made available for free redistribution under the terms of the license, which requires an advertisement for the ODP be placed on every page which uses the data. The Open Directory powers the core directory services for the Web's largest search engines and portals, including Netscape Search, AOL Search, Google, Lycos, HotBot, DirectHit, and others.

As of April 2002, ODP claimed to have 3,280,044 entries in 46,979 categories, maintained by 47,628 editors. However, critics of ODP claim that the number of editors contributing to ODP is exaggerated by a ratio of at least 4 to 1. This is due to the fact that ODP tracks the total number of editor logins ever created rather than the number of currently active editors. After an inactive period of three months, many of these logins have timed out. Many other logins that are included in the overall tally represent the logins of former editors who have had their editing privileges removed due to abuse.

There are some restrictions on who can join and participate in ODP in addition to the aforementioned restrictions imposed by ODP's content license. The first gatekeeping mechanism is an editor application process, presided over by ODP's "meta editors." Approximately 90% of these applications are rejected, but re-application is the norm. Once an editor-applicant has been granted editing privileges, he or she must then apply for additional editing privileges in various ODP categories.

ODP's editing software is not open source. There have been many efforts to provide truly open alternatives to ODP (see below). These alternatives intend to allow communities of like-minded editors to set up and maintain their own open source/open content Web directories.


Alternatives to ODP

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