Yahoo is killing off the Yahoo Directory | Hacker News Reader

Yahoo is killing off the Yahoo Directory

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This is kind of a big deal - historically. Yahoo was the first website I ever visited, and I'm sure this is true for a great many people.

Though I was kinda surprised to discover that it still exists. I thought it had been killed off long ago: https://dir.yahoo.com

I was also mildly surprised to discover that dmoz, the Mozilla "Open Directory", still exists under the control of AOL after they purchased Netscape so long ago: http://www.dmoz.org

Dmoz is still surprisingly productive. Definitely needs to some love though. The only modern directory that I can think of along these lines is the 'Hidden Wiki' for Tor.

DMOA edits I made when I was an editor in 2000 that are severely out of date still exist, for example

The Yahoo Directory was Yahoo's first product.

This is a stark reminder that very few things last and maybe a point to reflect how Yahoo succeeded and failed to pivot into other directions.

Can you imagine Google terminating Search? Facebook terminating their home page? What else would they do and would they be successful?

In a historical context, back in the day directories were a big deal, it took a long time for search engines to become powerful enough to rival the usability. A piece of the old web is gone now.

The original "school networks" of Facebook are long gone; their vestigial remains insufficient too track down fellow alumni. The newsfeed, like the Yahoo portal content, was a later addition.

> rival the usability

Not really their utility! Search by keywords/phrases sorted by popularity and date do not fully replace a good directory which, in contrast, can be a list curated by human experts in ways that keywords/phrases cannot more then just begin to characterize.

Rough, old proof of this point: Why the Yellow Pages, with their categories and ads, were so much more useful than just the white pages. E.g., the ads gave a lot of details beyond just the keywords used in the alphabetical lookup. So, do the alphabetical lookup and then look at the ads for more details. The larger ads in effect were a curation.

And there are other examples of directories.

Am I the only one who thinks this way?

While this does offer some historical significance the cost to maintain old web properties can far outweigh the value in keeping them. I run an 18 year old site and lately I've found quite a lot of relief in removing older features. In fact I'm considering removing the very feature that "made" my site many, many years ago. It's certainly a necessary move if you want to stay relevant online. I'm sure there are some folks at Yahoo who are very excited to shut this down and close the book on what is likely a maintenance nightmare.

Yahoo Directory has certainly been neglected and customers stopped using it in favor of search. However, I think there's still an opportunity for a directory 'done well'. Browsing hierarchically is a different mode of discovery. Customers approach it in a different way and that can help them to discover sites that they wouldn't otherwise find through search and news.

DMOZ is still around, but I think the best directories end up being the niche directories maintained by people who are really into something. Wikipedia also has some amazing lists.

There's still https://delicious.com/

> Customers approach it in a different way and that can help them to discover sites that they wouldn't otherwise find through search and news.

Very much so, and a directory can be focused start into a very different approach to the rest.

I strongly agree. Search works when you have some specific intent, and can articulate that intent to some degree. A directory helps you discover knowledge you didn't even know to ask about.

@highlander, ping me at john a fries

at gmail if you would like to discuss further.

At least it will live on at Archive.org; I'm sure Archive Team is going to get rolling on it shortly.

You know a company is in trouble when the only way they can generate news about their products is by shutting them down.

Not surprised to see qwiki there. For all the hype around it I never thought that it would be successful. All it really seemed to do was make clumsy automated videos that took a lot away but really didn't add anything to just reading a wikipedia article.

Qwiki pivoted in the past year or two. They made an iOS app with the tagline:

Share your life through brief, beautiful movies

“Qwikis” created in just one tap.

---

Their blog shares several example "Qwikis" (videos):

http://blog.qwiki.com/

A (well curated) directory can be a great tool to get to know new sites you might not be aware of. Pity that they are killing it off rather than re-imagining it. I don't really know what Yahoo! is supposed to stand for anymore.

I wonder what the absolute traffic levels of the Yahoo directory are like these days compared to the directory's heyday. They're a much smaller part of the internet now, but the internet has grown so much larger.

I guess older sites can drop the NOYDIR meta tag. A few weeks ago i noticed my site still has the NOODP tag. I have to think that Google doesn't even bother with that anymore.

Google's Webmaster Tools documentation claims it's still used, but I haven't seen it in ages.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35624

As a reminder, Yahoo acquired Qwiki for $50M just one year ago...

Does any manager get fired for making the decision to buy Qwiki for $50 mil

Acquisition decisions are made at the highest levels of the company. So...

This was submitted a day ago, and attracted a little bit of attention (sort of... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8374830), but I think it's actually a pretty big deal that they're killing off their original raison d'être. Hence the "editorialized" title[0] and resubmission.

0: "Yahoo is killing off the Yahoo Directory"

I honestly don't think this is a big deal. The directory has been defacto dead for a long time.

It's the end of an era...

I've been watching the new page for a few days and Yahoo! killing Yahoo! Directory has appeared many times, and each time it has gone no where. This is the first time I've seen it on the home page.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com