YSSP went offline this morning; it’s going to be interesting to see what Yahoo will focus on next. I actually believed in the YSSP program, it was a great way for some of these mammoth sized websites to get their products indexed. Could there have been more transparency, yea probably so. But to see the true benefit of the program you would have to look at the big picture. A bunch of revenue was generated and butt load of jobs where also created. Plus I like to believe that the program help customers locate products easier. And if I had to guess I would guess that majority of the agencies/resellers that Yahoo partnered with operated in good faith. So think about it for a second there where probably hundreds of agencies/resellers submitting millions and millions of clean, optimized and sometimes fresh URL’s to Yahoo. I like that idea. I like the fact that I can trust a program that employed a bunch of people to police and submitted trusted data. So when I clicked on a link then that’s where I’m directed to. Yea in any program that involves money your going to have people who will try and dupe the system. But in the grand scheme of things I believe there had to be more good then evil here.

Anyway sorry for the rant, back to topic, what will Yahoo focuses on next. I personally hope Yahoo and the other engines will put a little more effort into the Search Monkey, RDFa and Rich Snippet projects. I think there’s a lot of opportunity in enhanced search results, especially if your site is product driven. Right now it doesn’t seem like it’s on anyone’s radar and that perhaps all of the Search Monkey and Rich Snippet hoopla was a just a big PR stunt. Basically one of those “We can do it also” type of things.
Here’s an example. Shortly after the dust settled on the Yahoo killing YSSP program stuff AOL announced that they may offer a paid inclusion program. Now it’s hard to tell if this was a serious statement or just a stunt to attract attention.

AOL To Capitalize On Yahoo Ending Paid Inclusion Program