Open Directory Project - The ODP aka DMOZ

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Written by Chris Hirst
A listing in DMOZ (Directory MOZilla) aka the Open Directory Project (ODP), for historical reason is considered vital by many webmasters and marketers. However this is a long held misconception brought about by Google using the ODP "RDF like" data dump to populate their directory and by displaying a value for their proprietary PageRank against each entry. The fact that they also allowed for the listing to be ordered by the PageRank value led to the belief that the exported value was important.
The ODP editors are all volunteers and have a strict set of guidelines for accepting sites and wording the entries. Many of the categories have no editors and a looked after the "meta" editors these are editors who have proved themselves and edit in the higher level categories.
Yes, there is a way to submit your website to a category but the chances of being approved are slim to none. Most editors prefer to find sites themselves, and add those to their category rather than waste time (they are volunteers remember) dredging the junk filled submission queue, looking for the odd gem that may have got there accidentally. So PLEASE do not ask us question about why you have not been approved or rejected. We don't know and don't really care. Not getting listed can be a good thing, because Google WILL use the bland title and description in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) listing for the "home" page of your site, which is [b]guaranteed[/b] to reduce the likely hood of click throughs to your website "home" page. Having or not having a listing will NOT make or break your marketing efforts, just submit there and then forget about it and get on with creating a site that is good for your users.

UPDATE

In June 2011 Google closed their directory with a message saying quote: "Google Directory is no longer available. We believe that Web Search is the fastest way to find the information you need on the web. If you prefer to browse a directory of the web, visit the Open Directory Project at dmoz.org"
Hopefully this will end the obsession over having a listing there. ....

... Eventually.