Yesterday the internet was all a flutter with reports and wide ranging theories as to why searches for "DMOZ" in Google were not returning the usual results. If you happened to miss those, I've included a couple of examples that can be found here, here, here and here.

While these made for great headlines and no shortage of comments and link backs...they were 100% off the mark.

Truth is, this is just one of those things that happens from time to time in the world of search.

We made some significant upgrades to our back-end systems to improve the stability of DMOZ. One of those changes required changing the root domain from dmoz.org to www.dmoz.org. What we all witnessed yesterday and what was reported by the great sites above was part of an index recognizing, adjusting and updating in real time. This was confirmed in discussions we had with Google and everything should be running smoothly now.

So go ahead and try a query for DMOZ. And if you don't see our site, clear your browser cache and try again.

Here is a screen grab taken 5 minutes ago.


You can also give it a shot in the search box above ( click the web link & enter query ).

DMOZ is not dying folks. We're growing every day. Globally.

Feel free to use that sound bite from now on in your future posts : )

Hello and welcome to the new DMOZ blog, the official source for information, insight, and updates about DMOZ, the Open Directory Project ( ODP ).

DMOZ is made up of thousands of passionate, volunteer category enthusiasts and experts from all over the world who donate their time to arrange their respective portion of the web. Thanks to their work, DMOZ is a starting place for browsing and searching the web. DMOZ data is also used by thousands of search engines and web portals to help people quickly and easily find information on the web.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, the rumors of DMOZ's death have been greatly exaggerated.

The editor community is very much alive and thriving. Thousands of new sites are added and updated every week, and we continue to receive hundreds of editor applications and suggested sites every day.

We thought now was the right time to open the door and start a conversation with the Web community about what's happening with the largest human-edited directory.

We intend to use this blog to:

- Provide authentic messages about DMOZ and the efforts of our volunteer community.
- Highlight enhancements, both current and future.
- Allow editors to showcase their categories and describe, in their own words, why DMOZ is so important.
- Recruit new editors. If you have access to the Web and are passionate about a category, find out how to apply.

Additionally we want to hear from you.

What do you think about DMOZ? Why do you use the directory or data? Is there something you would like to see fixed? When you've been around as long as we have, some people are bound to have great things to say, while others might have a few choice words based on their personal experience. Either way, we want to hear it :)

We plan on posting every week so grab the RSS feed or sign up for an e-mail alert to receive notification of new entries as they are posted.

Bob Keating
Managing Editor, DMOZ Staff