Yahoo announced Tuesday that its search network is embracing Web services and that its commercial subsidiary is taking a new name.
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company has created the Yahoo Search Developer Network, which co-founder Jerry Yang is set to introduce at the Search Engine Strategies Conference here. The network will allow software developers to create new applications (with the aid of application programming interfaces, or APIs) on top of Yahoo search, including images, video, news and local search.
In addition, Yahoo is shedding the Overture Services brand roughly 20 months after Yahoo agreed to pay $1.63 billion for the commercial search pioneer. The company has renamed the unit Yahoo Search Marketing Solutions. Yahoo"s dual announcements are not merely linked by timing. Broadly, they underscore the company"s desire to ingratiate itself in the search community, which is defined by software developers, a thriving advertising economy and Web surfers.