Yahoo Category Links Gone Away?

[dannysullivan]

Playing with the new Yahoo search results today, which are being widely rolled out to everyone. I noticed that the promotion of Yahoo's category links finally seems to have disappeared for the first time ever. This is best illustrated by a trip back in time.

November 1999


The traditional Yahoo, where you used to get a list of all categories from the human-powered directory, then a list of matching web sites from the directory, then matching web pages. I used to call this CSP: Category, Site, Pages. Being in a Yahoo category was essential, since so many people detoured into these.

July 2002


Still CSP, but the number of categories shown in response to any search had been greatly curtailed, by this point.

November 2002


In late 2002, matching web sites were removed, leaving just CP -- the P being matching web pages as provided by Google. NOTE: I snipped out two of the four sponsored listings, so you can better see the web pages part. As for category listings, Directory Category Matches still hangs in there as its own section, but the number of listings is again curtailed.

April 2004


The C is still hanging in there, but no longer as its own section. Instead, it's a single line in the Inside Yahoo! area that says Categories.

July 2004


Death to the C. Finally, categories appear to no longer be part of the mainline search results for the first time ever at Yahoo. I can't find them anywhere. Anyone else seeing them in the new results, which are rapidly rolling out to everyone?

[rustybrick]

So this begs the question, are directories dying?

[doppelganger]

Actually, the categories are still there...

They are showing up underneath the individual results, for those sites that are included in the directory. In your example of a search for "shoes"... the first result says "Category: Footwear Retailers"...

[seobook]

Originally Posted by rustybrick

So this begs the question, are directories dying?

across large networks with huge distribution directories do not monetize as well as pay per click and paid inclusion results, but there is no reason to think they are dying. lots of interesting niche specific and high quality general directories are doing well (of course AdSense has helped cause a proliferation of low quality directories).

I remember when I interviewed Bruce Stone of http://www.wowdirectory.com he was stuck working a really long day with all the submissions he got.

people like directories, and they provide great value, but in most cases general directories provide more value to the webmaster than the general surfer.

I still occasionally use directories.

[dannysullivan]

Actually, the categories are still there...They are showing up underneath the individual results, for those sites that are included in the directory. In your example of a search for "shoes"... the first result says "Category: Footwear Retailers"...

Yes, didn't mean to suggest these are gone. But I tend not to think of these as being that visible to the user, a link set out on its own. They are almost an aside. Look back at the first image, and you really see how much Yahoo has shifted.

[doppelganger]

Directories like DMOZ are just way too large for human editors to manage... you need a city of people in order to add all the new listings, delete the old ones, etc... The volunteer idea was a novel one, but many people just don't have the time to dedicate, and are quite frankly, unreliable.

If directories can focus on one category, maybe the size is actually manageable.

I'm actually finding more and more that the closest thing I use to "directories" are the categorized links on some of my favorite blogs & websites... These really are like "niche" directories.

[Artyom]

Hello everyone,

this is my first post to SEW. I've been reading SEW weekly since late 2000 and I tried to do the best to use all data I was digging from all I read and now I believe I can add my two cents to the discussion

Looking at Yahoo SERPs now I believe it reflects a simple thing - Yahoo realizes that most it its visitors need Web results more than its Directory stuff. I remember reading that the majority of Yahoo users are young people under 25 and they either use it for shopping (shopping.yahoo.com) or entertainment. But as long as directories stuff are rather for B2B, but not such audience. That's why "moving Directories to the corner" is really obvious thing to do.

[rbester]

Anyone else seeing them in the new results, which are rapidly rolling out to everyone?

Not under the main "Web" results, but they are still available when clicking the "Directory" link above the query input field.

So this begs the question, are directories dying?

Definitely not! 1) They are great places for humans to look for new Web resources. 2) They are also great for the SE robots - to find new sites to crawl and to help them classify Web sites. The Yahoo! search developers are simply trying to clean the SERPs as much as they can. I think it is better this way, besides, the "Directory" tab covers for it.

Deviating from the subject a little, when I tested the new SERPs I used the phrase "search engines." I find it funny that when trying to search for search engines the INSIDE YAHOO! section show: "Try the new Yahoo! Search: ...", so I tried and it gave me the same results

[snaket]

See the following papers:
http://www-faculty.cs.uiuc.edu/~kcch...el2-021104.ppt
http://www.stanford.edu/~taherh/papers/comparison.pdf
http://decweb.ethz.ch/WWW2003/papers.../p185-jeh.html
http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/haveliwa...sensitive.html

And the Google labs:

http://labs.google.com/personalized

[bethabernathy]

This is what Yahoo says when you sign up for a directory listing:

"While inclusion in the Yahoo! Directory does not guarantee search result
placement, your site may appear in Web Results due to its increased
relevance." – Dated 7/2/04

Of course, the web results ranking for the site that I signed up has not increased. It would be my opinion that those sites reviewed in Dmoz or Yahoo and subsequently placed in their directories should be given a slight increase as they have been reviewed by humans regardless of whether or not the humans are paid or volunteers.

[rustybrick]

Originally Posted by bethabernathy

This is what Yahoo says when you sign up for a directory listing:

"While inclusion in the Yahoo! Directory does not guarantee search result
placement, your site may appear in Web Results due to its increased
relevance." – Dated 7/2/04

Very interesting...Kind of shocked that they would say this even thought it is true.

[Papadoc]

Originally Posted by Artyom

Looking at Yahoo SERPs now I believe it reflects a simple thing - Yahoo realizes that most it its visitors need Web results more than its Directory stuff. But as long as directories stuff are rather for B2B, but not such audience. That's why "moving Directories to the corner" is really obvious thing to do.

I agree but not for the same reason. It used to be that search was very unreliable and depended upon author keywords and much SE spam. I recall getting a dozen or so results from the same site within the first two pages. It's now much better and you can often find what you need in a page or two of SERPS. Plus, the SERPS are updated regularly and you can get data that is only a day or two old.

Conversely, directory information is seldom updated (in fact is nearly impossible to get it updated), and the site contents or focus can be drastically different. Plus, by the time you go through all the categories, sub cats and sub sub cats, to find the directory that you want, you can be there on a straight search.

Now, specialized directories are a different story and coming into play big time. If you are looking for a particular kind of site and find directories that lead you there, you are far better to use these dedicated directories in most cases because they include things at a much deeper level. I run several such ones myself and doing quite well at it. The difference being that while an SE depends on people submitting their information, we go out and look for it and ours also includes companies that don't even have a web presence... just an email address. Specialized directories are much more comprehensive. The other advantage is that these kinds of directories also often have a fair amount of content and other advertisers that complement the content.

From a publisher's standpoint, we have a far more targeted audience and our advertisers do better.