Yahoo Inc. on Tuesday released in beta a new application that lets registered users create their own shortcuts to Web pages through the portal's search engine.

Called Open Shortcuts, people can access a Yahoo page that lets them attach a name to a URL that would take them to a frequently visited page or Web service.

For example, someone could choose the letters "TW" for TechWeb, and attach it to the URL, http://www.techweb.com. When visiting the Yahoo search engine, the person would then only have to type "!tw" into the field to go directly to the TechWeb homepage.

The exclamation point is needed before each shortcut name. The full list of a person's personal shortcuts would be available anytime through the search engine by typing in the field "!list."

For users of Yahoo Web mail, typing in "!mail" followed by an address would launch the Yahoo Mail application and begin an email to that address.

Yahoo has made a list of Open Shortcuts available for general use.