Yahoo's opened a new Yahoo Search Subscriptions (http://search.yahoo.com/subscriptions) program that's bringing in premium content into web search. In other words, have stuff behind a password wall. In the future, this could be a way to get it in front of searchers and charge them a per view fee. Right now, the program is working with very large publishers of information. More details in our blog story, Yahoo Search Subscriptions Brings Premium Content Into Web Search (http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/050616-000001). Comments, thoughts?

Fantastic coverage Danny. A pleasure to read. Thank you. :)

Launched this morning. AcessMyLibrary.com (http://www.accessmylibrary.com/)

All you need is a library card. Access millions and millions of current and archived journals and magazine articles for free.

Thomson Gale Launches AccessMyLibrary.Com to Allow Tens of Millions of People to Access Trusted Library Information Online (http://www.prnewswire.com/news/index_mail.shtml?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/06-16-2005/0003876383&EDATE=)

...In the future, this could be a way to get it in front of searchers and charge them a per view fee....

Yes. I posted something to this effect over at Threadwatch last night, but haven't gotten any interest.

Some years back, Larry Page and Sergey Brin spoke about their vision of Google as a subscription type gateway to all information. I see Yahoo Subscriptions as a beta project to start working out the pricing structures of such a model. For me, it feels like a major step forward in this area.

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I see Yahoo Subscriptions as a beta project to start working out the pricing structures of such a model. For me, it feels like a major step forward in this area.I seem to remember Yahoo having a subscription service for Northern Light's content when NL ceased being a crawling, searchable engine.

And didn't NL themselves have subscription service at one time? They were the best resource around at the time for doing any type of research, except for comprehensive, quality directories - which Yahoo Directory was back then, prior to the paid inclusion.

I seem to remember Yahoo having a subscription service for Northern Light's content when NL ceased being a crawling, searchable engine.

Marcia - This is the only thing I can find on NL/Yahoo...
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum35/571.htm

Unfortunately, the links to the press releases don't work any more. The link to Yahoo still does work, though, and it is a subscription service, though it doesn't mention NL technology any more.
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/premium/premium-05.html

I think new technology is now clearly in the works. In addition to Google and Yahoo both beginning to index paid content, reports are surfacing that Google is coming up with its own payment system.

There are lots of sensible reasons for Google to have a payment system that go beyond the scope of this thread, but what might appy here is that it would allow Google, perhaps using accounts and micro-payments, to charge for subscription content fairly seamlessly. I believe that Yahoo is already working on such a system, but I don't yet have a link to a source.

Here's a link to the New York Times article on the Google payment system. It may require registration.

Google Said to Plan Rival to PayPal
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/20/technology/20google.html?ex=1119931200&en=75e2f6d80963745e&ei=5070

We did a write-up on the Yahoo/NL deal here:
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2159111

I forget when that actually ended, however. Divine, which bought NL, went bankrupte in Feb. 2003. So a year or less. NL's founder then bought back the service, http://boston.internet.com/news/article.php/2214041.

I can't remember if Northern Light ever went entirely dark/offline or not. But it seems so, with the return being in Dec. 2003: http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb031208-1.shtml

FYI, it's a nice month for old ideas to come back. First we have Google mass accepting URL lists like Infoseek used to, and now we have Yahoo listing subscription content like Northern Light used to.