There are many types of sites that could contain links to your web pages. Some of these allow changed URLs to be reported by e-mail, some have reporting methods that do not involve e-mail and others do not have a mechanism for reporting URL changes at all. Move Announcer will currently announce your changed URL to those sites that have an e-mail reporting method. Any other sites we're aware of will be listed under a separate heading in the final summary e-mail we send to you.

Here are some of the types of sites which we will not notify of your changed URL, and some hints on how to notify them yourself.

Search Engines
This type of site, like AltaVista and Google, indexes large numbers of Internet sites and lets you search for key words in them. Most of these engines allow you to submit your new URL and will eventually index your new site. If your old site has already been taken down, some of them allow you to enter your old URL and will remove those pages from their databases.

The most efficient way to announce your site move to the search engines is to use a search engine submission service. There are many of these available at varying costs. We have listed several on our Other Links page, and the Open Directory index lists many more possibilities.

Directory Sites
Directory sites list the names and descriptions of individual web sites. Most of them have some way to update URLs, but usually require you to go to a specific web page to enter your changes. Here's how to update your URL on three of the bigger directory sites.

Yahoo
Yahoo was one of the first directory sites, and is still one of the biggest. To change your URL, you must fill out their change form. Enter the old URL (as currently listed in Yahoo), the e-mail address you used when submitting the site, and the new URL and press the "Submit" button.

Open Directory
Hundreds of sites use the Open Directory data to create a customized web directory of their own. Changing your listing on any Open Directory site will change it on all the others as well, although it may take some time for your change to propagate everywhere, depending on how frequently each site updates its database.

If you're listed in the Open Directory, here's how to change your listing:

1. First find the page (or pages) that contain a link to your site on any Open Directory site, and choose the "update URL" link on the page. You may go to the master Open Directory site dmoz.org and search for your URL to find the category under which it's listed (if it's listed at all).
2. On the "update URL" page, enter the URL of your old site as listed on the page and press the "Update URL" button.
3. On the next page, replace the old URL with your new one. Where it asks you to "Please describe the nature of your changes", just say "site moved".
4. When you press the "Update URL" button, your change will be passed on to an editor who should approve it shortly.

It takes from a day to several weeks for your change to appear on the dmoz.org site and longer to appear on other Open Directory sites.

Look Smart
Look Smart licenses their database for other sites to use, in a way similar to Open Directory. Changing your URL at the main Look Smart site will cause all Look Smart licensees' to change as well (eventually). If you're listed in the Look Smart database, log in to your account and edit your listing.

Other sites
Bookmark sites
Some sites allow you to post your personal bookmarks or favourite site lists on the web. Some of these sites list the bookmark files anonymously and provide no way to contact their owners.

Guest Book and Free-for-all Links sites
Many sites allow their visitors to add comments to a guest book which often include links to other sites. This type of link list is generally temporary and its contents are erased after a while, so we don't bother the webmaster of this type of site if we are aware of it.

Mailing list archives
Mailing lists often have copies of their messages available on a web site for searching and perusal. Since these web pages provide a verbatim historical archive of messages, it would be inappropriate to change a link in one of the messages after the fact. As such, this type of site does not generally provide any way to change a link.