Overview: The Open Directory Project (ODP) is one of the largest databases that powers multiple search engines

The Open Directory Project (ODP) is a search engine that was developed in 1998 by five individuals who saw the opportunity for developing a market which Yahoo failed to address, using thousands of volunteered editors to power the index. Originally named "NewHoo", Netscape acquired the organization in November of the same year and re-named the operation to Netscape Open Directory Project. With the acquisition, Netscape released the database freely and is now one of the most powerful databases as multiple search engines including Lycos, Hotbot, Altavista, Google and others power their directory services with ODP.

Open Directory Project

http://www.dmoz.org (New window opens)

People are not robots	Since ODP is powered completely on editors who are experts in their categories, everything indexed into ODP is done by people. No META tags, ALT image tags, HTML comments or image maps will help boost your ranking here. Your best chance on getting your site listed is to describe your website as accurate as possible. The final decision rests up to the editor who reviews your website so your website must impress them to be worthy of adding you to their database.
Submission Time	Getting listed in ODP can take anywhere between 1-4 weeks. Because the ODP database is provided by volunteers on the web, submission time is quite rapid as opposed to other editor based services such as Yahoo, Looksmart or Snap. All submissions must be done manually and through the appropriate category.
Insider Tips	Remember that all editors are volunteers and as such are not usually bound by any fixed rules or policies in ranking websites. We suggest before submitting your site to a category, you contact the editor for that category (indicated at the bottom of each page) and introduce yourself and ask what he/she values to be considered a good website. Develop a personal contact with the editor and then submit your site, you'd be surprised how often this technique is used (and works).

Automated Submission Tool	Use our Submission Tool to submit your site to all the major search engines
META Tag Generator	Create better META Tags with our META Tag Generator
Manual Submission	Submit your site directly [External Link]