There’s reports coming in today that Google has ditched Dmoz and now no longer provides a directory of sites. When you access a directory listing you now get the message:
Google Directory is no longer available.
We believe that Web Search is the fastest way to find the information you need on the web.
If you prefer to browse a directory of the web, visit the Open Directory Project at dmoz.org
What does this signify… only time will tell. Maybe G was having a canonical issue by duplicating Dmoz’s content… who knows. Still its pretty interesting.
Image via Wikipedia
If my memory serves me right, Google’s directory was the same as Dmoz except that sites were listed in order of PageRank instead of alphabetically or whatever. I see one of a few possibilities here.
1) Maybe Google decided that they could no longer trust the links on Dmoz as they do not keep the directory very clean. Lots of old websites who were listed years ago end up keeping their listing even after the domain has been acquired by a spammer or serp manipulator. There are even some sites linked to from there that have been hijacked with malware.
2) Maybe they are still using DMOZ as a sign of trust but they got sick of all the duplicate pages of Google’s own directory being published on the web.
3) Maybe they are trying to keep their own directory private because it was too revealing to the SEO world.
G already give quite a lot away, just look at how categories behave in Google Adwords Keyword Tool
I suggest Google is responding to the reality of the day. Directories are no longer that valuable and DMOZ is not very accurate.