Why Yahoo! Shortcuts Is Working
Today I heard about Yahoo’s latest offering for blog writers, Shortcuts. I’m testing it out for the first time as I write this article.
What it claims to do is, with the use of a Wordpress plugin, offer up related media and links as your write your posts. For instance it just added a Yahoo search [...]
Today I heard about Yahoo’s latest offering for blog writers, Shortcuts. I’m testing it out for the first time as I write this article.
What it claims to do is, with the use of a Wordpress plugin, offer up related media and links as your write your posts. For instance it just added a Yahoo search link when I typed “Wordpress” [I have over-written that link to forward you to the plugin mentioned].
After you are finished writing the post, you can hit the Review this Post button, which is embedded in your Wordpress/Write sidebar and add any additional material that they offer up.
Why is this a good idea?
This works because Yahoo are providing easy access to material that is related to your posts, without forcing you to use them. Other programs that add search links, link ads etc to certain keywords can become intrusive, particularly when they aren’t related to the context you’re writing.
You can imaging if Google opened up something like this, how successful it would be. As of now, Yahoo doesn’t offer a great deal of useful material; the most relevant being Flickr - which is great for adding photos to your posts without doing any searches.
Yahoo Maps, I find, isn’t nearly up to par with Google’s, as well as the search [which I'll admit is adequate]. Imagine, be the case with the non-existent Google Shortcuts, adding specific Google links ads throughout each post and being able to remove those that aren’t relevant.
Let’s see what else Yahoo is suggesting I add to this post…
It’s a little buggy, without much extra material on offer [related Flickr photos and Yahoo Shopping products mainly]. Here are some suggestions that Yahoo could provide as options to add to posts:
They’re obviously working on more. Your own suggestions? The key here is the ability to remove anything they suggest. That’s why I like it.
Tags: download, flickr, plugin, Wordpress
