> Please. This sort of demonizing exaggeration does no one any good. I would
> like to see some substantiation that the ODP brings in even hundreds of
> thousands in revenues. They give away their data for free (which
> I might add
> provides a great benefit to your site, Wherewithal, at no cost to you.)
> Within the AOL/Time Warner multibillion juggernaut the ODP can't be even a
> visible flicker on the balance sheets, much less on Steve Case's paycheck.

http://search.aol.com/cat.adp?id=8081&layer=&from=breadcrumb

You see the 468x60 GIFs on the top and bottom of the page, and the big
square one on the right? Those are called "advertisements". AOL gets "money"
for these "advertisements". Given AOL's enormous traffic, and the fact that
search is the #1 revenue generator for ads, I'd say that money that make as
a result of ODP content is easily in the millions, if not the hundreds of
millions. $100 million annually would not be significant to AOL's overall
bottom line, but it would be a nice bonus for the 8000+ editors responsible
for the content. Looksmart has a staff of "over 150" (they say) maintaining
their directory: this comes out to an expense of about $15,000,000 per year,
give or take. This too would not be a blip on AOL's radar, but again, money
is still money.

Wherewithal, like the other major portals using ODP data, is another company
profiting off of free ODP labor. The only difference with us is that we're
doing something to change the situation with our patent-pending system of
Searchonomics.


*
* Steve Thomas http://www.wherewithal.com/
* President & CEO The Future of Search
* Wherewithal.com
*
*

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tim Maroney [mailto:tim@...]
> Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2001 11:26 AM
> To: xodp@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [xodp] Letter to Department of Justice.
>
>
> >>> They are exploiting free labor to yield
> >>> millions of dollars in revenues.
>
> >> you're joking right? Ever heard of girl scout cookies?
> >> They generate millions of dollars in revenue and are
> >> sold by free labor too.
>
> > Last I heard, AOL/Time Warner is not a non-profit organization.
>
> Right. It's the use of unpaid labor to generate revenue for a for-profit
> organization that is in apparent violation of USA labor laws. Non-profits
> have a different set of rules, for good reason.
>
> As many of us already know, AOL already faces serious legal difficulties
> from its use of volunteer labor elsewhere. Whether this issue winds up
> affecting the use of volunteer labor at ODP is something that no one is
> talking about in the press. It doesn't seem to have been brought up in the
> case -- probably because none of us volunteers (current or former) have
> filed any complaints.
>
> > Perhaps they
> > should call ODP the "Steve Case Lear Jet Fund" or something.
>
> Please. This sort of demonizing exaggeration does no one any good. I would
> like to see some substantiation that the ODP brings in even hundreds of
> thousands in revenues. They give away their data for free (which
> I might add
> provides a great benefit to your site, Wherewithal, at no cost to you.)
> Within the AOL/Time Warner multibillion juggernaut the ODP can't be even a
> visible flicker on the balance sheets, much less on Steve Case's paycheck.
>
> --
> Tim Maroney tim@...
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> xodp-unsubscribe@egroups.com
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>