Yahoo! has recently launched a new plugin for Wordpress that has the ability to add its “Shortcuts” search pop ups to blog content. Shortcuts are basically informational pop ups that function in a method similar to Snap’s SnapShots and AdaptiveBlue’s SmartLinks. The basic difference is that Yahoo!’s implementation is based seeded with Yahoo! content. The Wordpress plugin provides bloggers with better control on how the pop ups are executed in every post. Instead of adding Shortcuts to every post, bloggers are allowed the chance to decide which pop ups are required to be added on a post by post basis.

At present the Shortcuts plugin supports maps, products, financial info, autos, news, as well as web search. Yahoo! Has numerous other Shortcuts like sports, movies and music, which it can add to the plugin in the near future. The plugin also links Flickr (yet another Yahoo service), by scanning the photo sharing site for Creative Commons-licensed photos that seem to be pertinent to the content of every post and advising which image will be suitable to the posts. This is a quick shot way to enhance the aesthetic value of your blogs. The plugin scans the content of a post prior to publishing it and informs the blogger about how many Shortcuts have been sited. Once that is done, users can decide which Shortcuts to use before making the post live.