If you try to navigate to the Google Directory, you will be greeted with the following message:

Google Directory is no longer available.

We believe that Web Search is the fastest way to find the information you need on the web.

If you prefer to browse a directory of the web, visit the Open Directory Project at dmoz.org

Again, the viability of directories in relation to marketing is dubious, but if you could get your site into one of these things — the prominent ones, anyway — it was worth a shot. Oh well. There’s always DMOZ, although, I have something of a history with that particular subject.

Over at Csutoras’ post, he states his preference for Best of the Web directory, which offers a similar level of quality as a DMOZ entry. The difference being, the BOTW directory charges for listings. DMOZ, while free, has issues of with the approval process.

Speculation concerning the closing of the Google Directory focuses on lack of use, something Barry Schwartz pointed out in a SearchEngineLand post. He also indicates Google deactivated its directory without much fanfare, and, after a quick glance at the Google Webmasters blog and the official Google blog, you’ll see that there’s no announcement available, which also supports that “lack of use” theory. There’s also nothing on any of the various Twitter accounts for Google employees.

If no one’s using a product, quietly killing it is indeed an option, although, there isn’t much of anything Google can do that will remain quiet for long.

For months, the speculation surrounded an apparent decrease in PageRank scores on Google’s Toolbar. It seemed the decrease in rank was connected to penalties associated with buying and selling links that passed on PageRank, a practice Google not-so-quietly condemned last autumn.

But what was more confusing was that though the toolbar scores were dropping, the actual search rankings looked to be unaffected. Google appears to have updated its Directory on January 8 along with PageRank scores that are significantly higher than listed on the toolbar.

Observers say the Google Directory update seems to be pulled directly from DMOZ, the open directory project. As a result, Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable joins others in discrepancy reports:

"…it seems like the Toolbar PageRank of this site is a PageRank of 4. But if you look at the most recent Google Directory update, this site appears to be a PageRank of 7."

There are few theories posted about why this is occurring, Andy Beard explains how this could be problematic for advertisers looking to assess the true value of a website:

"It seems Google used their real dataset for PageRank for the Google Directory export, forgetting that they are telling their millions of users lies on their toolbar with manual penalties, which until now had no visible proof.
 

"Google have the right to do whatever they like with their search engine, but this is another major demonstration of how Google are manipulating public and advertiser opinion." 
 
 

I just spotted a story on Sphinn that will likely get deleted because it is all in Russian – the Google Directory has apparently been updated from DMOZ data from 08/01/2008 (European date notation)

That wouldn’t be significant other than Google lists pagerank alongside the listings in their version of DMOZ

I have highlighted a few sites that as far as I am aware still have a manual PageRank penalty for what Google might consider selling PageRank Passing Links, including this one.

If you look carefully you will notice that the values shown in the Google Directory are considerably higher than those shown on the Google Toolbar.

It seems Google used their real dataset for PageRank for the Google Directory export, forgetting that they are telling their millions of users lies on their toolbar with manual penalties, which until now had no visible proof.

Google have the right to do whatever they like with their search engine, but this is another major demonstration of how Google are manipulating public and advertiser opinion. They still state that the toolbar PageRank displayed is:-

Wondering whether a new website is worth your time? Use the Toolbar’s PageRank™ display to tell you how Google assesses the importance of the page you’re viewing.

It seems my listing which was previously as a PR5 has moved up a number of places, so there is a good chance I am now on the bottom of the PR6 sites listed.

Lets be clear, even though I am most likely a PR6 site, I am not selling PageRank when I write reviews, they are editorial links.

Comments

*Originally published at AndyBeard.eu