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Yahoo Shopping releases application interfaces

Move allows developers to build applications into their Web sites to allow customers to search Yahoo's merchant databases.

Elinor Mills Former Staff Writer
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service and the Associated Press.
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Elinor Mills
Yahoo is trying to make it easier for companies to create e-commerce Web sites.

Yahoo on Tuesday unveiled application programming interfaces (APIs) for Yahoo Shopping that developers can use to build applications into their Web sites to allow customers to search and compare products and prices from within Yahoo's merchant databases.

The product search API lets developers add applications onto commerce sites that search the Yahoo Shopping database by keyword, merchant, price range or product category and filter merchants according to their Yahoo User ratings.

The price comparison grid API provides access to millions of products from thousands of merchants with base price, tax and shipping information and total price, based on ZIP code.

Yahoo and other software and Internet companies release APIs publicly to encourage developers to build applications that work with their platform and thus increase the number of people who use their software. Most recently, Yahoo and Google have released the APIs for their competing mapping technologies.

Also on Tuesday, online comparison Web site Shopping.com announced it will provide access to MSN to millions of products from its database of more than 10,000 merchants. Shopping.com is being acquired by online auction giant eBay.