Socialist Yahoo (dmoz.org)

Name: as2101

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Product:	dmoz.org
Date:	05.09.01 (84 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast, No ads, Easy to get your site added

Disadvantages: No added features, Not all sites are in

dmoz.org is like a socialist version of Yahoo. It's built by volunteers, who aren't paid- and the result is a labour of love (labour, get it? sorry...) which provides accurate, ad-free searching.

This struck me as a really good idea. We all need search engines, but ads can be a real waste of time.

Also I've noticed that AltaVista etc. seem to carry some very out of date results, as well as some which are totally irrelevant. Worse still, I've found many-a-site which hasn't appeared in AltaVista, or Lycos etc. at all.

[1]Design

The first thing you notice about the site is it's simplicity. It's design is uninspriring, yet very practical. There are no ads, large pictures or other features, just a list of catagories, and a search box. This means that the site is very fast to load (the only other search engine this fast is Google, which also uses simplicity to its advantage).

[2]Searching, and Results

When you type a word into the box, it searches the catagories, just like yahoo would. It then brings you a list of areas in which it found the word(s). If you click these, it will give you more accurate results.

Results are always accurate, due to the fact humans do the indexing. However, I fould that the range of sites in it was somewhat limited, as sites aren't automatically found, but they have to be 'submitted'.

If it can't find you what you want, it provides a direct link to other search engines- which makes it the ideal place to start.

[3]Adding your site

I have a website, and had had little joy in submitting my website to search engines. 'Bots' seemed to ignore the site (and, yes, I'd followed all the usual tips eg. no dead links).

I therefore, tried dmoz.org You simply email them (via the homepage) and someone ads it for you. You can even offer to be a moderator, and get involoved!

It was very si
mple.

[4]Finally...

dmoz.org has a lot going for it- easy submission, accurate results, links to the other engines and no ads. However, results are limited and the design is uninspired. It is an important force on the net, though, and is used by many other large companies such as AOL to provide their results.

Why watch someone elses ads, when you can use the ad-free version here?!

Summary: