Nearly three years after Google opened its web search APIs (allowing the software developers to query its Web document database directly from their own computer programs and use that data for their own application) Yahoo! is moving on. By creating Yahoo Search Developer Network Yahoo! 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. (via C|Net).

Even more than that. Rumors around are cirrculating that Yahoo! is preparing for the big fight with Google. As such, following Google’s succesful AdSense program it seems that the guys are Yahoo are working hard at their new contextual advertising program for blogs and other small publishers.

MSN and Ask are still missing the game, but I really see them in pretty soon, and then we’ll have a real battlefield around.