Yahoo! Shortcuts Wordpress Plugin {caution-display issues}
Earlier today Yahoo (YPN Blog) announced a contextual plugin for Wordpress that allows you to easily add Yahoo content to your blog. They call it Yahoo! Shortcuts. The description reads “Yahoo! Shortcuts for Wordpress plugin intelligently enriches your blog post with great content from Yahoo! Maps, Finance, and beyond.” This plugin is similar to the Amazon Associates program contextual links and other forms of javascript-based auto linking services like Snap.com. It’s alike but not the same. I’m using the Yahoo shortcuts plugin with this post. It really is easy to use, just like the demo says. You can embed Creative Commons licensed images from Flickr too. The plugin runs a little slow at times but is easy to use overall. Adding Flickr photos is easy too. 
You must be using the WYSIWYG editor in Wordpress to move shortcut items around and (as you can see) the plugin doesn’t do a great job of hiding all the code in excerpts, hopefully they fix this in newer releases.
There is no mention of monetizing the content shown in shortcut links. Yahoo Publishers Network is still in beta so monetizing Yahoo Shortcuts (also in beta) could still be in the works. Download the Yahoo Shortcuts Plugin for Wordpress here. Released under BSD license.
Images added using the plugin:
