NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Yahoo! is poised to launch an ad network for small Web publishers styled on a similar offering from Google, sharpening competition between the search giants, according to a published report.

Yahoo! plans to launch its own advertising option for small publishers that, like Google's service, will display text ads deemed relevant to the content of specific Web pages, according to CNET.

Advertisers pay only when a reader clicks on their ad. Yahoo! and publishers will split the fees.

Yahoo! and Google already go head-to-head for major search advertising partners such as America Online. Google has largely enjoyed a monopoly serving its signature text-only ads to smaller publisher Web sites, including increasingly popular blogs.

Dan Boberg, director of business partnerships for Yahoo! subsidiary Overture Services, confirmed in an interview last week that Yahoo! is interested in the market, although he declined to discuss details. "We're headed in that direction," he said.