bCentral Small Business Directory to be retired

[Bernard]

Got this email from Microsoft today:

Continued listing on the Microsoft Small Business Directory
Also effective May 18th 2007 at 3:00pm Pacific Daylight Time, the bCentral™ Small Business Directory will be retired. In its place, we are offering existing Submit It! customers and others who currently have bCentral Small Business Directory listings a free, grandfathered listing in the new Microsoft Small Business Directory. While we will be preserving the present directory’s link friendliness and search ranking value, slight changes will be made in the way the directory appears to the public and how you may alter your listing. Please read below and see more details about these changes in our Small Business Directory Customer FAQ.

Automatically reserving your Microsoft Small Business Directory Listing
On May 18th 2007 when the Submit It! service ends, the bCentral Small Business Directory will be converted to a read-only online business directory. This means that while the public will still be able to browse, search and view directory contents, you will not have access to the listings in order to edit your information. Other than requests by you to remove your listing, after May 18th 2007 changes may not be made to the directory’s contents.

The process of converting the bCentral Small Business Directory to the Microsoft Small Business directory will happen some time between May 18th and June 30th 2007. During the conversion there should not be any impact to your listed sites. The current directory will remain viewable to visitors until the new directory is in place. As was the case with bCentral Small Business Directory, you will continue to be bound by Microsoft’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy if you use the new, free Microsoft Small Business Directory service.

Update or remove your current listings by May 11th 2007
If you want to continue your listing on the new Microsoft Small Business Directory through 2008, you may want to log into the Member Center to see that your listing includes current information about your business or organization. Any new information you submit to the directory must adhere to our listing guidelines and must be completed by 3:00pm Pacific Daylight Time on Friday, May 11th 2007 to allow us time to review and process any new listing information you might supply.

If you do NOT want to continue your listing service on the new Microsoft Small Business Directory through 2008, please log into the Member Center and delete your current listings no later than 3:00pm PDT on Friday May 11th 2007. You’ll find detailed instructions for updating or deleting your information in our Small Business Directory Customer FAQ.

[jess12]

i thought it was april fool by the way, do you know what's the link to the "new Microsoft Small Business Directory"?

[Bernard]

No, it's not a joke. Microsoft made the decision last year to drop the bCentral SubmitIt service that the directory was a part of. The directory was in limbo since then (not accepting new listings or removing listings that expired).

Looks like they are going to rebrand/repackage the directory as a standalone product now. I have not seen any announcement on the new directory yet.

[jess12]

Got it. Thanks for the info