Yahoo! becomes website enabler

Yahoo! on Sunday launched a new publishing tool for subscribers of its web hosting service as part of its ongoing attempt to win over small businesses looking for an online presence.

The tool, called SiteBuilder, lets users create a website using an array of templates and interface options. The product also lets people develop pages while offline through an application download and then upload publishing changes onto their sites. SiteBuilder is free to existing Yahoo! Web Hosting subscribers only.

The launch highlights Yahoo!'s latest attempt to beef up its services for small businesses. The idea is to combine various Yahoo! services, such as business email, website hosting and online promotion for mom-and-pop businesses needing to go online.

Small and medium-sized businesses are a potential revenue source for Yahoo!. Last week, Yahoo! acquired Overture for $1.63bn in cash and stock, largely to tap commercial search revenues from smaller online businesses.

"We think Overture will be a major contributor to our small business offers," said Rich Riley, VP of Yahoo!'s small business division.

By early next year, Yahoo! plans to fold in ecommerce functions from its Yahoo! Store business into its web hosting business, Riley said. However, the performance of Yahoo!'s ecommerce hosting business has been unclear since the company discontinued disclosing its transactions revenue line.

Riley declined to provide specifics on the performance on Yahoo!'s small business division. He said Yahoo! currently has "hundreds of thousands" of small business customers spread through web hosting clients, Yahoo! Store customers, business email and for-pay GeoCities web publishing services. However, Riley would not disclose the number of web hosting subscribers.

Jim Hu writes for CNET News.com.