The Daily Ping

It seems that the best search engine on the Web (Google) has met the best directory on the Web (the Open Directory Project). This can be nothing but good news for web surfers looking for a reliable place to search. The great thing about Google is its relevancy. The great thing about ODP is that it’s the Net’s first, and most complete, open source directory. What’s even better is that Google has altered their search a bit so that a site being listed in the ODP directory gives it a higher ranking in the results than if it’s simply in the Google database. After only two uses, I saved it in Opera with the nickname “Find” and it’s now my first stop when doing a search.

Two minor complaints:

1. When looking at a category in a directory, the listings are, by default, listed in “Google Page Rank Order.” This is an OK option to have (though not necessary since all listings in a particular category should be relevant by nature), it should definitely default to the alphabetical sorting.
2. They don’t list the editor for each ODP category. All of the other search engines that have integrated the ODP directory into their site display the editor, and there’s no reason Google shouldn’t. I have a feeling this will be a short-lived problem, once numerous ODP editors point it out to the kind folks at Stanford. 🙂

So, congratulations to both Google and ODP — this is a match made in Heaven. -ram

Posted in Miscellaneous