After 18 years, DMOZ Web Directory closes today on March 14th 2017 and with that an era in the field of SEO and Digital Marketing also comes to an end. DMOZ was one of the oldest and most trusted human edited open directories. The notice of closure appeared on their home page of the website on February 28th, 2017 saying it will no longer be available from 14th March 2017.
Also known as Open Directory Project (ODP), DMOZ, came into existence on June 5th 1998 and was initially known as GnuHoo. Later on it was rechristened to NewHoo. When Netscape obtained it in November 1998, the directory was again renamed to Netscape Open Directory. However, after few months, AOL obtained Netscape thereby giving AOL the control of The Open Directory.
Along with DMOZ, Yahoo also reigned the arena of trusted and reputable Web Directory for quite a long time. However, facing great competition from Google and following a couple of game-changing Google updates back in 2011-12, Yahoo Directory also closed in September 2014.
Following Google’s two major updates, Panda and Penguin, many from SEO fraternity started claiming that it was the end of the era of web directories. Most marketers, Digital agencies and SEO expert professionals considered them as irrelevant resources. Sooner or later they had to close finally DMOZ also realized the fact.
There are still many directories available online to list websites but with the closure of DMOZ, an era comes to an end!
