According to the New York Times, Yahoo has announced its intentions to create a network of websites built around specific products called Brand Universe.  Building on the success of a pilot page created around the Nintendo Wii game console, Yahoo said that it would be creating about 100 of these branded sites focusing on television shows, movies, bands, celebrities, and other popular brands and products.

The Brand Universe sites are an attempt to bring the massive amounts of disjointed content spread across a variety of Yahoo properties into one place.  The Wii site, for example, features content from Yahoo! Answers, del.icio.us, Yahoo! News, and message boards.  Vince Broad, the man in charge of entertainment for Yahoo, told the New York Times that Yahoo was attempting to create a central place for fans of certain brands to hang out while online.

Yahoo has also said that it isn't asking permission from owners of these brands before creating sites, but that it will honor any request to halt production of a site.  The search company is also exploring different ways to share advertising revenue from the sites with the respective owners.  Broady said that the company is confident that most, if not all, of the content owners would be happy to have their products exposed to Yahoo's large Internet audience.