Home > Engines & Directories > Open Directory 

 Quick DMOZ 

Open Directory  

• Leave the search box blank to get 4 random categories

 What's so good about DMOZ?  

• Huge directory
• Maintained by unpaid volunteers
• Open Source
• Powers Google Directory

 Advanced DMOZ 

• Not that advanced... new entries can take a few days to get indexed
• Try Ez2Find's version - it adds links to Alexa and translations for each entry
• Try iBoogie's version for their fast menu-based means of drilling down through categories
• Try SearchShots' visual version - an image of the front page of each site is displayed. Also at Open Thumshots
• Cbel have created multiple levels of categories on single pages - saves some to and froing
• Try Clustered Hits' version that clusters the results. Requires Internet Explorer
• Family Source is a search engine for the kid-friendly sites within Open Directory

 How DMOZ works 

Default search:

All keywords as if connected by AND. If all the words occur as a phrase, that page will rank higher.

Search options:

You may use and or or or andnot to include/exclude keywords. Shorthands of - and + work.
Note: You cannot begin a search with a "-" term. You must put some other search term first.

Wildcard works at the end of a word only - Bicycl* would match sites on Bicycling, Bicycle, and Bicycles.

Use quotes for a phrase.

Results:

Sometimes it times out.

After the directory results, there are links to all the other major search engines. Click on the link to automatically search for your keywords.

 How to submit your URL 

Click on add URL at the top of category pages. Can take anywhere from days to months before being listed. Use Seotie to keep track of when you get listed. Report any editor who is unreasonably promoting their own site, or denying listings to their opposition: DMOZ Abuse Report System

 Facts & Figures 

Open Directory was launched mid-1998, when Netscape bought an earlier version called GnuHoo/NewHoo and renamed it. Obviously aiming to be a direct competitor to Yahoo - with the advantages of being cheap to run (volunteer editors), ad-free and open source.

The ODP is also known as DMOZ, an acronym for Directory Mozilla. This name reflects its loose association with Netscape's Mozilla project, an Open Source browser initiative.

Some sites have thousands of listings within the directory - see the list here

Google loves it, and has their own version here.

Spam: If you think that an editor is spamming or promoting its own domains, send an email message to staff@dmoz.org.

Size: 3.8 million sites - 54,284 editors - 460,000 categoriesand still growing
Searches per day: ???

Popularity: ???

Number of links on their Home Page that are not necessary: 0