Vast Active Library and Information Science blog. From a recent library science graduate in Wellington, New Zealand. A focus on reference and current awareness tools and issues, especially free, web-based resources.

 
Yahoo is moving to a system of paid inclusion, claiming that this will allow it to index the Deep/Invisible Web. The vast majority of sites will still be free listings, though. And it isn't charging non-profit sites for inclusion.

The positive side: National Public Radio and the Library of Congress will have material accessible via Yahoo.

The downside: some of the smartest people in this area don't like it:

"Yahoo's new system runs the risk of blurring the lines between the advertising and editorial sides of its search engine, said Chris Sherman," story via Associated Press.

"But Gary Price, a librarian and information research consultant who co-authored a book about the invisible Web, questioned the value of adding deep-Web databases to Yahoo's voluminous index, especially when people already can access the databases directly through other Web sites.

``Is it good? Sure, it's more content,'' Price said. ``But it also makes it harder to find. You're making an already large database even larger. . . . The information might be there, but if it's listing 100 in the search results, will anyone see it?''"
story via the Mercury News.

These stories were originally seen on LISNews.com and Metafilter respectively.


| posted by Simon at 5:39 pm