DMOZ Internet Directory Re-Launches at DMOZLive.com After Unexpected Shuttering by Host AOL

REDMOND, Wash., March 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Last week, AOL shut down DMOZ.com, the official homepage of the DMOZ Internet Directory. However, the directory was quickly re-launched at DMOZLive.com. The new site represents the final iteration of the human-curated Internet directory and includes the same powerful browsing and searching tools. The DMOZLive.com version of the directory is made available through a Creative Commons Attribution license from the DMOZ organization.

"While automated search engines have become standard, we believe there's still value in human curation, as evidenced by site traffic data," says DMOZLive.com Founder Douglas Olson. "Humans are still better at understanding the content, motive and quality of web pages, and organization that information in a comprehensible way. It's worth noting that the search engine titans like Bing and Google continue to employ humans to test their automated systems, so even they recognize this fact. Moreover, DMOZ is an important piece of Internet history, as its roots go all the way back to 1998. We felt it was important to preserve this resource and the countless hours of mostly volunteer work it represents."

The official DMOZ site, which was owned and operated by AOL, helped millions of Internet users make sense of the web and discover practical resources that may otherwise have gone unknown. A small army of volunteer editors worked to maintain the directory, which received several million page views each week. AOL has not commented on its closure of the site, and only provided two weeks notice prior to closure.

DMOZLive.com is now home to the only remaining full-featured version of the DMOZ Internet Directory, which comprises over 3.5 million sites across 800,000 categories. Typical categories range from business, computers, games and the arts to news and shopping. Within each top-level category are numerous subcategories, many of which have subcategories of their own, and so on. The result is a hierarchy of relevant content moving from the general to the specific in a way that feels natural to human users. This structure has been largely unchanged since the directory's creation in 1998.

As a global project, the directory includes regional content in 91 languages. Pages in Arabic and Hebrew are formatted with the appropriate right-to-left text. Users can search the full text of directory categories as well as individual site descriptions in any of the 91 available languages. The current version of the DMOZ Internet Directory also boasts a clean, modern interface that makes for easy navigation.

Easily the most unique and powerful feature of DMOZLive.com is the ability to execute a wide range of custom searches. Above each list of categorized web sites, a custom search bar encourages users to "search the below sites." With this feature, users are assured that a specific, targeted search will not return the flood of generalized and often irrelevant results typical of broader search engines. Mining the web's information to uncover knowledge has always been a challenge, but DMOZLive.com has been designed to make the task a little easier.

"Finally, we want to express our sincere thanks to the dedicated DMOZ editors around the world who have helped keep the Open Directory Project moving forward," added Olson. "DMOZ has always represented the very best of the web and of the human spirit of discovery, cooperation and sharing. We're proud to continue making the final version of the DMOZ Internet Directory available for as long as possible."

About DMOZLive.com

DMOZLive.com is operated by Midnight Design Productions, a technology company focused on building innovative web sites and services. The company leverages world-class design and development experience to build websites that bring communities together.

Contact Info:

Douglas Olson
Midnight Design Productions, LLC
16541 Redmond Way #512C, Redmond, WA 98077
425-202-6196
[email protected]

SOURCE DMOZLive.com

Related Links

http://dmozlive.com