DMOZ: Open Directory Project

How to Link to the Open Directory

The Open Directory welcomes links from other websites. Show your support for the Open Directory and get the word out with one of the helpful links below.

  1. Put a Open Directory metasearch box on your web page with the following HTML:


    dmoz.org
    <center><small> <form method=get action="http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search"> <input size=20 name=search> <input type=submit value="Search Open Directory"><br> <a href="http://dmoz.org/"><b>dmoz.org</b></a> </form></small></center>

    Open Directory is a good place to start searches, since you can continue the search on many different search engines without having to retype anything.

    If you are using the Open Directory Search as part of a meta-search or aggregate search you may wish to disable some of the Open Directory's fall back search features. These features are:

    1. By default the Open Directory's first search attempt is always an "AND" search, by inserting an implicit "AND" operator between all search terms. This can be over ridden by inserting a different boolean operator either "OR" or "ANDNOT". Logical operators inside a quoted search term are ignored. Quoted strings are treated as a single search term.
    2. If there are no matches for the first "AND" search, the Open Directory search attempts the search again, but with "OR" as the default search term. This is noted on the search results page. To turn off the fall back search option pass the search CGI the added GET argument "&fb=0"
    3. If both the "AND" and "OR" search fail, then the the search will attempt the query on the Netscape Search (powered by Excite). To disable this fail over search, pass the search CGI the added GET argument "&fo=0"

    Note: there are no "&fb=1" or "&fo=1" flags, they are simply set by default.

  2. Add a Open Directory category search box to your website with the following HTML:

    Search Open Directory
    Arts
    Business
    Computers
    Games
    Health
    Home
    News
    Recreation
    Reference
    Regional
    Science
    Shopping
    Society
    Sports
    <center> <table bgcolor="#000000" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=1 border=0><tr><td> <table bgcolor="#f0f0df" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=6 border=0> <tr><td colspan=2 align=center><small> <b><a href="http://dmoz.org/">Search Open Directory</a></b> </small></td></tr><tr><td><small><b> <a href="http://dmoz.org/Arts/">Arts</a><br> <a href="http://dmoz.org/Business/">Business</a><br> <a href="http://dmoz.org/Computers/">Computers</a><br> <a href="http://dmoz.org/Games/">Games</a><br> <a href="http://dmoz.org/Health/">Health</a><br> <a href="http://dmoz.org/Home/">Home</a><br> <a href="http://dmoz.org/News/">News</a><br> </b></small></td><td><small><b> <a href="http://dmoz.org/Recreation/">Recreation</a><br> <a href="http://dmoz.org/Reference/">Reference</a><br> <a href="http://dmoz.org/Regional/">Regional</a><br> <a href="http://dmoz.org/Science/">Science</a> <br> <a href="http://dmoz.org/Shopping/">Shopping</a><br> <a href="http://dmoz.org/Society/">Society</a><br> <a href="http://dmoz.org/Sports/">Sports</a><br> </b></small></td></tr></table></td></tr></table> </center>
  3. Use one of the User-Contributed Banners & Buttons.