Last night on the sixth edition of the search pulse Tim Mayer came on the show to remark on my Request To Yahoo! To Add Support For No Directory Tag. He said that in about a week, Yahoo! like Google and MSN will support the NOODP tag that enables a webmaster to tell the search engine not to use the description from the ODP directory.
Now why would Yahoo! implement this? (1) Yahoo! does sometimes use the ODP description in the SERPs. (2) It has already been set up as a standard meta tag.
Why didn't Yahoo! commit to releasing a version to opt out of using the Yahoo! Directory title in the SERPs? (1) Tim said their alogirtms are good at figuring out when and when not to use the title (2) Tim said, they don't want to create yet an other meta tag without really needing it
The deal is I still want them to create this tag, because as Danny showed me last night, a search for tony knowles still has the same issue Danny pointed out here. So I believe there is still a need for the Yahoo! Directory meta tag.
This is a move in the right direction, so thank you Yahoo! for taking a step forward here.
Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld & Search Engine Watch Forums.
Update: Yahoo! has now added support for the NOYDIR tag, more details here.
