thanks for the heads up on the video.
as he says, google will value directories still paid and free that exercise editorial control and evaluation, and there are in fact a lot of them that i have decided from my readings around still have value as I submitted to a number of them the past 6-8 months and both the pr of my site and the serps improved and at the time that was the only new seo technique that i was using. of course one has to pick and choose and be selective....