I was reading a discussion over at Digital Point Forums today regarding the maturity of the directory maket.
I don’t think the directory market has reached “maturity” as much as it has attained saturation, especially within the webmaster/seo community. The majority of web directories I’m familiar with are relatively unknown outside of these small circles. It’s not surprising, given that the majority of those directories are targeting webmasters/seo’s within such communities.
It’s likely that there could be a downside if directory owners don’t remove their blinders and get outside the box.
I’m willing to guess that the majority of those directories share a common footprint that may be easily distinguishable to SE’s. Free script, free template, free category dump – you’ve struck out your first at bat.