Auction site eBay will release new APIs in the next few months so developers can start creating applications.

The announcement was made at eBay's developer conference in Las Vegas.

The auction house will make four APIs available - one for express searches, one for accessing the express checkout, one for extra product information and one Contextual Keyword API for altering listings on blogs or other sites with rapidly changing content.

More on the conference here or from IDG here.

eBay's payment unit PayPal is improving online support for developers with a new website and simplifying access to resources by putting them all in one place.

The auction house also announced the imminent arrival of its own advertising platform - AdContext which will put it in direct competition with the likes of Google for selling contextual advertising.®