DMOZ
DMOZ (stylized dmoz in its logo; from directory.mozilla.org, an earlier domain name) was a multilingual open-content directory of World Wide Web links. The site and community who maintained it were also known as the Open Directory Project (ODP). It was owned by AOL (now a part of Verizon Media) but constructed and maintained by a community of volunteer editors.
Type of site
90 languages, including English
March 17, 2017
www.dmoz.org (Archived 2018-01-19 at the Wayback Machine)
No
Optional
90,000
June 5, 1998
Closed
DMOZ used a hierarchical ontology scheme for organizing site listings. Listings on a similar topic were grouped into categories which then included smaller categories.
DMOZ closed on March 17, 2017, because AOL no longer wished to support the project.[1][2] The website became a single landing page on that day, with links to a static archive of DMOZ, and to the DMOZ discussion forum, where plans to rebrand and relaunch the directory were being discussed.[2]
As of September 2017, a non-editable mirror remained available at dmoztools.net,[3] and it was announced that while the DMOZ URL would not return, a successor version of the directory named Curlie would be provided.[4][5]
Original logo as from June 1998
Logo after rebranding as NewHoo
Logo after acquisition by Netscape
Logo from 1999 to 2014 with the name DMOZ
Logo from March 2014
Logo from June 2016 until the closing in March 2017
Curlie logo (2019)
Software[edit]
Search[edit]
The ODPSearch software is a derivative version of Isearch which is open-source, licensed under the Mozilla Public License.[55]
Editor forums[edit]
The ODP Editor Forums were originally run on software that was based on the proprietary Ultimate Bulletin Board system. In June 2003, they switched to the open source phpBB system. As of 2007, these forums were powered by a modified version of phpBB.
Interface[edit]
The DMOZ database/editing software is closed source (although Richard Skrenta has said in June 1998 that he was considering licensing it under the GNU General Public License). This has led to criticism from the aforementioned GNU project, many of whom also criticized the DMOZ content license. The content was later released under a Creative Commons license, which is compatible with the GNU license.[56]
As such, there have been some efforts to provide alternatives to DMOZ. These alternatives would allow communities of like-minded editors to set up and maintain their own open source/open content Web directories.