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What the Heck does DMOZ Stand For?
Nowadays, most web site owners are advised to list their site in the "Open Directory Project" at dmoz.com.
And they start wondering...
What the heck does "DMOZ" mean? Does it stand for something?
Sort of.
Back in 1992, Ancient History for the Internet, before most of us had ever heard of the web, it did exist, and what made it accessible to most people was the first popular web browser. Cello was the first browser but it didn't quite catch on the way this new browser did. This browser was built in 1992 by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. The browser was called NCAS Mosaic.
Mosaic, for short.
In 1994, twenty to thirty guys at a new company were working on a new and better browser. They didn't have a name for the browser and were sitting around trying to think up names.
Someone spoke about how the new browser would "Crush Mosaic," and if you were ever a fan of animated shorts, you might have seen one called "Bambi Meets Godzilla." It is two minutes of opening credits with classical music while Bambi peacefully nibbles on flowers in the forest. After the credits are finished, the huge foot of Godzilla stomps down and crushes Bambi. The end.
Devastatingly quick and final.
Once someone suggested that the new browser would crush Mosaic, Jamie Zawinski shouted out, "Mozilla!"
Mozilla did not become the name of the new browser. That was Netscape 1.0 and developed by a company who would soon become known as Netscape Communications.
However, the Mozilla name stuck. It became the mascot for Netscape, and you can see various cartoon versions of Mozilla, the green lizard, at the bottom of all the Dmoz directory pages.
You see, Netscape bought a directory called NewHoo.com in 1998 and changed the name to honor their mascot. It became "The Directory of Mozilla."
Dmoz.com.
Dmoz, for short.
Moz is short for "Mozilla the Mosaic Crusher."
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copyright
2007, Terry Light