There is nothing inherently wrong with .info Directories. The problem is how they have been abused by certain people in the directory industry. .info domains can be registered for about $1 for the first year but future years cost around $10 per year. A high percentage of .info directories disappear before their 2nd year. The subject was discussed recently at DP forum.
Here are some of the funnier comments.
these nutcases are buying the domains in bulk and churning directories like bunnies
cheap domains for cheap directories. nothing new here. quick buck crew trying to create an empire of poop!
.info Directories = I’m a moron following the moron ahead of me into failure.
The only difference between *.info and rest is that 99% of the *.info directories will be dead in 1 year. Other than that there is no difference.
Today a directory owner admitted to owning 2500 directories. So, someone pays a buck for a .info domain, uses a free script, a dump of categories and hosts a wad of them on the same server. They have created a network of identical, poor quality directories on a couple of IPs. The problem is that a small proportion of these (if any) will be around in a year or two.
I pity people with legitimate .info directories. They will be prejudiced because of the color of their extension.
Is it possible that the .info behavior can harm all directories. You bet!
Should we do something about it. Yes we should!
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Published on December 10th, 2009 | 3 Comments | Posted by admin |
3 Responses to “.info Directories Have a Bad Reputation”
Yes, pity us! I simply bought a ‘.info’ domain because I thought it sounded good with the name of my directory. Dot-info sounds like there will be useful information on the particular site, but that is naive. Because as you pointed out, we get a bad rep from careless directory owners (aka spammers)! I believe my PR has suffered because of it. But alas, my .info directory has been up for 2 years and I have no plans to take it down. Thanks for getting this out in the open!
The .info domain extension has been abused for a long time. Because it is cheap, people buy hundreds of them, and then create the massive link farm networks that you speak of with the freely available powerful versions of directory scripts.
I’ve seen a lot of directories in my time, and whenever I see a .info, it always disappoints. I actually scanned through our current very trim listings, to check out a few .info directories who have been listed for quite some time.
I was dismayed to find that even these had very weak editing policies, and due to our newer strict editing outlook I was forced to remove them.
I believe that we can do something about it, and that is to CHOOSE not to list the .info domain extension in directory lists.
Whenever I am reviewing directories nowadays the .info’s go straight to the trash can, do not pass go, do not collect $200…
I agree Dan.
- 4-5 months ago I started to ignore large networks of directories.
- 2 months ago I started to ignore groups of .info directories
- 1 month ago I started to ignore 95% percent of .info directories
- Now: I will not list any .info directories unless the owner has not other directories.