Web Services Discovery provides access to software systems over the Internet using standard protocols. In the most basic scenario there is a Web Service Provider that publishes a service and a Web Service Consumer that uses this service. Web Service Discovery is the process of finding suitable web services for a given task.

Publishing a web service involves creating a software artifact and making it accessible to potential consumers. Web service providers augment a service endpoint interface with an interface description using the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) so that a consumer can use the service.

Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) is an XML-based registry for business internet services. A provider can explicitly register a service with a Web Services Registry such as UDDI or publish additional documents intended to facilitate discovery such as Web Services Inspection Language (WSIL) documents. The service users or consumers can search web services manually or automatically. The implementation of UDDI servers and WSIL engines should provide simple search APIs or web-based GUI to help find Web services.

Web services may also be discovered using multicast mechanisms like WS-Discovery, thus reducing the need for centralized registries in smaller networks.