Yahoo! is to offer Web hosting services for small businesses in US. Three tariffs are available, costing $11.95, $19.95 and $39.95 each per month and set up fees ranging from $15 to $25. Support for PHP and MySQL is provided with the most expensive plan.

Yahoo! is looking for a hefty slice of a US web hosting market segment worth $1.3bn a year, according to Yankee Group, and it has XO Communications, Verio and Interland firmly in its sights.

A recent Harris Interactive survey, presumably commissioned by Yahoo!, shows that "31 per cent of small business customers surveyed said they would select Yahoo! over the combined 20 per cent who would select XO Communications, NTT/Verio or Interland". ®