We present our experimental ablation results for partially overlapped dual nanosecond laser beams (PO-DB) on metal and glass surfaces.Numerical simulations are performed to evaluate the crater reduction potential of the PO-DB setup.Damage probability experiments proved the collaboration of two beams within the overlap region.Bright-field and three-dimensional profile measurements verify the reduced ablation area from the proposed PODB scheme.Laser-induced plasma is generated when transparent glass is ablated.Atomic emission of Na I (～589.95 nm) shows comparable signal between the PO-DB set and the traditional single laser beam set.The proposed PO-DB ablation mechanism could also be applied to femtosecond laser systems.