Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) is the name of a web-based service that exposes information about a business or other entities and its technical interfaces or APIs. These services are run by UDDI-enabled servers, and can be used by any business that wants to make their information available, as well as anyone who wants to find that information. There is no charge for using the basic services of these sites.

By accessing any of the public sites, anyone can search for information about web services that are made available by or on behalf of a business. This provides a mechanism that allows others to discover what technical programming interfaces are provided for interacting with a business for such purposes as electronic commerce. The benefit to the individual business is increased exposure in an electronic commerce enabled world.

Businesses can register several kinds of simple data to help others answer questions of "who, what, where and how." Simple information about a business - information such as name, business identifiers (D&B D-U-N-S Number(R), etc.), and contact information answers the question "Who." "What" involves classification information including industry codes and product classifications, as well as descriptive information about the services that are available for electronic interchange. Answering the question "Where" involves registering information about the URL or email address (or other address) through which each type of service may be accessed. Finally, the question "How" is answered by registering references to information about specifications that describe how a particular software package or technical interface functions. These references are called 'tModels ' in the documentation.