Subscribe Feed (RSS)Are Alexa And DMOZ Down For The Count?
November 22nd, 2006 by Joshua Dorkin | Filed under Marketing, Websites.
What is going on with Alexa and DMOZ. Both have been having problems for weeks now.
Alexa simply does not load most of the time. Are they in the midst of a major update? I’m shocked that they have not addressed the problem publicly! So much for PR.
DMOZ has had problems with their submission engine for some time now. I’ve heard from editors over there that even they are unable to log in. I’m currently getting a “404 Not Found” error when visiting the site!
So . . . are two of the busiest websites in the world down for the count, or are they working on something really BIG? Either way, they are losing the respect of many people by not coming out and letting everyone know what’s happening.
Spin control anyone?
I agree that DMOZ has made itself useless by being down since October 25, 2006 (according to the DMOZ Administrator’s posting on their forums). I have a new website I wanted to add to Microsoft’s new Live Search, AOL Search and Google Directory, but I can’t add it to any of them since DMOZ submission has been offline. I’ll bet that the big engines are now scrambling to find a new way to do it. I wonder if it is an intentional move to thwart their competitors. Get ‘em hooked on something, and then kill it so they look bad. As a small business owner, my options are now limited to paying to have my site added, trying to get a long-standing website to add me as a link, or hoping someday a crawler/spider will pick up on my new site. These big corporate games make it extremely difficult for small businesses to succeed on the Internet.
The word is VERY BIG LEGAL trouble with possible prison involved.
I wouldn’t doubt that Google tore it up intentionally in one way or another to FORCE people to pay them for a listing as you’ll never get a decent organic listing (if any) without a DMOZ listing and they know that. Problem with that is that it’s been researched and over 80% of the people that use search engines prefer to click on organic listings. If this theory is found to be true I hope that people do wind up in prison.
The editors were taking bribes to include websites. What a shame! I’m not surprised.
Anyone know what AOL/Microsoft/others will do with their sites that currently say you have to go to DMOZ to add a URL? Are they scrambling to get something to replace it, or are they simply playing the wait and see game? Do you think that the crawlers like ask.com do a good job of catching everything? I was finally able to get google, yahoo and Live.com to see my new site, but it was not as easy as if DMOZ actually worked the way it is supposed to.
PS. Anyone have a link to any news articles on their legal troubles?
Dunno if you’ll let that announced here, but i want to announce that i have started a new free directory , called new-dmoz.org. Maybe it will grow up as dmoz is. And no sudden death around. It’s a well maintained website, even i just started the directory.
New-DMOZ -
Mandating a reciprocal link is going to very quicly slowdown any growth you might have garnered for your site. I for one would have added quite a few sites to yours, but not if I’m forced to reciprocate. That tactic is a bit dated these days.
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