The major affiliates each apply different formulas to ODP s data. Google s directory has the most straightforward scheme. It simply re-ranks the sites it gets from ODP according to link popularity, then displays a green bar beside each listing as a graphic indicator of how each site rates. Particularly unpopular sites are denied a green bar entirely. Google also sometimes excludes ODP sites from its categories or adds sites it considers worthy.
Lycos formula is more obscure.
It appears to combine the data it gets from ODP with the information its spider gathers and arrange the resulting sites according to some unknown algorithm. I got an indication of how this works by running a Lycos search for Marlon Riggs, a comparatively obscure filmmaker. I administer, I expected these pages to rank high with Lycos. I wasn t disappointed. The first result Lycos returned was for one of my pages, a directory of resources at the University of California-Berkeley.