Yahoo! devotes websites to royal wedding

Skyrocketing online interest in Prince William's wedding prompted Yahoo! on Monday to launch websites spotlighting the April 29 ceremony at Westminster Abbey.

Versions of Royalwedding.yahoo.com websites tailored for 10 countries, including Britain, France, and the United States, feature photos, videos, news, and a guestbook where visitors can leave words of advice for the couple.

"With the wedding of Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton less than a month away, people's interest in the big event is growing exponentially," Yahoo! said in a release announcing the websites.

Yahoo! websites have seen Internet searches related regarding the royal wedding jump 1,523 percent in the past month, and soar eight million percent overall since the couple announced their engagement.

Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo! planned to stream the wedding live online.

Internet colossus Google already has a 3D route of the wedding procession route at its Google Earth service.

While the British are already overwhelmed by the media frenzy surrounding Prince William's wedding, coverage in the United States is just now heating up.

The marriage of Prince William, second in line to the throne, to longtime girlfriend Kate Middleton is expected to attract 2.5 billion television viewers from around the world - more than two-and-a-half times the audience of the marriage of William's parents Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, in 1981.