Yahoo wants to enlist a small army of search start-ups as allies in the hope that collectively they will be able to stop the Google juggernaut.

Yahoo Inc's chief executive said on Thursday he was unlikely to meet with representatives of potential suitor Microsoft Corp at this year's meeting of media and tech executives in Idaho.

Yahoo Inc. unveiled ad-supported downloadable games on Yahoo Games Thursday, saying it plans to offer more than 400 such games by year-end.

Time Warner Inc's Turner Broadcasting System Inc unit will sell advertisements on Yahoo Inc's NBA, golf and NASCAR pages in a multiyear deal, the companies said on Thursday.

Yahoo Inc. and Turner Broadcasting System Inc. said Thursday that they began an agreement through which Turner will exclusively represent online ad sales for some Yahoo Sports pages and Yahoo Sports will be able to access several Turner-managed sites, including NBA.com.

In a move to build partnerships with third-party developers, Yahoo on Thursday introduced a new open Web services platform. Yahoo Search BOSS (Build Your Own Search Service) gives outside developers unprecedented access to Yahoo's search technology, including the ability to re-rank and control the presentation of results.

Yahoo Inc said on Thursday it would offer its users hundreds of popular casual online games as free downloads backed by revenue from advertising integrated into the games.

Yahoo is banking on the creativity of other Web developers to help preserve its independence and regain ground in the lucrative Internet search advertising market.

Having fallen so far behind Google Inc. that it became a takeover target, Yahoo Inc. is banking on the creativity of other Web developers to help preserve its independence and regain ground in the lucrative Internet search advertising market.

Yahoo wants to enlist a small army of search start-ups as allies in the hope that collectively they will be able to stop the Google juggernaut, whose share of Web searches keeps growing.