Want to see a real life monster link spam network? Start at sml338.org and check out their 44K+ links. It's one of those networks that's still relying on blog comment spam (to a certain degree), but also has so many thousands of links pointed together that they can rank on that alone... well, at least they can rank at MSN :)
Google clearly has other plans for them.
I'm not sure what it has to do with DMOZ - Brian?
RMC - Nope. The DMOZ is just one link, has its own power just like any other (relative to size, reputation, etc.). As far as we can tell, the Jagger update destroyed the last remnants of link value coming from replicated DMOZ directories and Google doesn't give any additional weight to its own directory listing.
Sorry, my bad - those are Yahoo! Directory listings the results are showing. :)
Why is it that the first thing that comes to mind is:
How do we know for sure that someone didn't do the ref & blog spam to try and knock a competitor out of the way?
I agree, a DMOZ link is usually worth more than one link. But I'm confused, what does sml338.org have to do with DMOZ?
I thought a benefit of DMOZ was getting all the scraper links as well. And doesn't that include you in Google's diectory as well?
Google also uses DMOZ.org as a weight factor. Dmoz is a human edited directory. If you can get your domain in there (and it may take months or years, if you can get in it at all), you have a great shot of getting listed much higher. Beware the obnoxious and extremely rude behavior of the editors. How Google let’s them get away with that is beyond everyone.
Lynn - the DMOZ link, while a good one, is no more valuable than any other link of relative parity. I tell folks to fire and forget - just submit your site once and if it ever does get listed, great. If not, never think about it again - it's just ONE link, and there are far better uses for a link builders time than to worry about DMOZ.
Interesting use of bait and switch with DMOZ there...