Launch of DMOZ

DMOZ, formally the Open Directory Project, was a web directory edited by volunteers who sorted websites into a hierarchy of subject categories. It was started in 1998 by Rich Skrenta and colleagues under a different name, and was soon bought by Netscape, later passing to AOL. Its data were released under an open licence, so many search engines and portals reused the listings, and Google's own directory was based on it for years. As search algorithms improved and the social web grew, hand-built directories lost their value, and the editing community shrank. AOL closed the site in March 2017, and a volunteer-run successor, Curlie, was later created from its archived content.

Open on the timeline