The @list Business Directory does not seem to have any websites listed in its database. It is a empty shell of a site with a complicated professional looking template. No matter which category you explore or how you conduct a search, there are no real results returned.
However, the site does seem to go out of its way to present Google Adsense blocks in a deceptive enough way to fool some visitors into believing the text links in the Google Adsense ads are actually results from the directory. This is a very bad business practice.
If this were a brand new site online with a nice template and they stated on the homepage that they were new and were in the process of expanding their directory, I could accept that as legitimate. However, when a site seems to intentionally pretend to be a directory with listings in various hierarchical categories only to instead substitute Google Adsense ads, this gets my dander up!
I spent a great deal of time (wasted time) searching through their directory trying to find at least one website listed. I tried all the popular categories like real estate, travel agents, restaurants, and health. I even searched for internet marketing companies in San Jose California and other places in the silicon valley and in Las Vegas Nevada where there are many. Unfortunately, I found none listed in this empty shell of a directory!
What is really sad is this site goes to the trouble of presenting a beautiful graphic representing how a premium listing will be shown. In other words, they really make it look legitimate on the surface. They also claim the cost of this is $149. I surely hope no one has taken them up on this and submitted payment.
What is even sadder is the fact that @list Business Directory has a button for "business advice" in their navigation menu where they post business advice articles! Wow! I seriously hope no one is taking business advice from a company that is going to so much trouble to trick their users into clicking on Google Adsense ads!
The copyright on this site says 2009 so they have been in business for at least three years and still have not added sites to their directory. If the copyright was 2012 (the time of this review), then I might think they just hadn't gotten started yet.
However, in three years not to add a single listing, even one they find and review themselves, makes me think that this directory is intentionally trying to fool people. This is made even worse given the fact that this directory is registered under a .org domain name, an extension normally reserved for non-profit organizations.
I wish there was a way to remove sites like this from the internet as they give all directories a bad name. There are some truly legitimate business directories on the internet that provide a valuable service to their users as well as those companies who choose to list in those directories or get discovered by directory owners as exceptional sites.
However, once most internet users run across a few sites like the @list Business Directory and get burned by accidentally getting tricked into thinking that the text in Google Adsense ads are real listings, many begin to think that all directories are like this. As a result of this deception, they avoid them all. I have a good mind to report this site to Google for potential violation of the Google Adsense agreement.
