The Open Directory Project (ODP), http://dmoz.org, is the most important taxonomic directory on the Web. Formally hosted and administered by the Netscape division of AOL, the ODP is run along the lines of an open source project and is inspired by the Debian Social Contract (see http://www.debian.org/social_contract.html).
The credo behind the ODP is that "humans do it better." The ODP believes that web automated search is ineffective, and getting worse, and that the small contingent of paid editors at commercial web search engine companies cannot keep up with the staggering rate of change on the Webdecaying, stagnant sites, link rot, new sites, sites intended as search spam, and so on.
The ODP is run and maintained by a vast army of volunteer editors. These editors follow internal checks and balances to preserve the integrity of the directory. See http://dmoz.org/guidelines/ for more information about the ODP review process and guidelines for site inclusion.
"You, too, can become an ODP editor in an area of your interest and expertise. See http://dmoz.org/help/become.html for more information about becoming an ODP editor"
The ODP taxonomy (categorization system) and the sites included in the categories are freely available as data for use by anyone who wants to run his or her own search engine, as long as the terms of the ODP's free-use license are complied with (for terms of the license, in case you want to use the ODP data in a search engine of your own, see http://dmoz.org/license.html).
Google, and most of the major search engines, do use information derived from the ODP, but of course they use it in their own way. With Google in particular, information from the ODP is used to form the Google Directory , http://directory.google.com.
"Google uses its own search technology for searches within the Google Directory."
Most significant, inclusion within an ODP category means that your site is very likely to be included within the Google web index (as well as the Google Directory and in other major web indices).
So it's worth submitting your site to the ODP, if only because it's the best way to get indexed (and appropriately categorized) by Google. You'll find a FAQ about how to add your site at http://www.dmoz.org/add.html (this FAQ is also available via a link from the ODP home page).
The first step is to locate the best category for your site. For example, suppose you have a site like Syndication Viewer, shown in Figure 2-3, whose purpose is to catalog and display selected RSS and Atom feeds as HTML.
The best category I can find for this site on ODP is Reference -> Libraries -> Library and Information Science -> Technical Services -> Cataloguing -> Metadata -> RDF -> Applications -> RSS. The category page is shown in Figure 2-4.
You can start your look for the right category (to get close to the best possible category) using a search term, for example, "RSS."
On the category page that you think is best for your site, click the suggest URL link, shown in the upper center of Figure 2-4.
On the Submit a Site to the Open Directory Project page, you will be asked to verify the category you selected (as determined by the page from which you clicked the suggest URL link). You'll need to enter your site's URL, title, a brief site description, and
your email address. As the editors note, "A well-written, objective description will make listing your site easier."
When your listing page is complete, click Submit. This process is now complete, except for the waiting. You should check back in four to six months to see if you've been listed.
"If I make it sound like you might have to wait a long time to get listed in the ODP, well, you might! The ODP depends on volunteer labor, and rumor is that it is getting slower and slower. However, inclusion in the ODP is a virtual guarantee of inclusion in many search engine indexes and other directories. So have patience! The ODP is worth it."
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