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Valleywag
Yahoo is launching a new video service called Yahoo Live. Initially available for Yahoo employees only, the service allows users to create their own "social broadcasting experience." Translation: Yahoo is the first major company to get into the lifecasting space currently occupied by startups like Ustream.tv and Justin.tv. Last week, we reported that Yahoo was looking to launch some splashy products to distract from its financial problems and layoff rumors. Yahoo Live seems to fit the bill. Catch the notice posted on Yahoo's intranet, Backyard, after the jump.
Yahoo! Advanced Products releases an internal alpha of the new video service Yahoo! Live.Yahoo! Live is social TV, where you're the star! Create your own social broadcasting experience. Start by broadcasting yourself from your webcam, invite your friends to chat with you, they'll go live with you, and you're all on candid camera!
The service is scheduled for release in early February, but be the first to test it and tell us what you think!
Join our mailing list at http://ilist.yahoo.com/wws/info/ylive-discuss for general discussion and to announce upcoming broadcasts.
We know it's easy to get carried away once you're on camera, but a few things to keep in mind about Yahoo! Live -
- This is an internal alpha release (Yahoos only!) so it's confidential.
- The service is still in development and may undergo outages, so any data saved may be lost prior to public launch.
- The service may not be accessible if you are on a wireless connection, due to security concerns. You can work around this by setting your browser to go through a proxy server. Here's how: http://twiki.corp.yahoo.com/view/Mingle/SocksProxyHowTo. Otherwise, please use the service from a hard wired connection.
Comments
This company is addicted to launching (or buying) new products that it doesn't have the wherewithal to support in the long term.
@macbeach, you nailed it.
This is the cutting-edge stuff coming out of the Yahoo advanced products group? Lifecasting is so...2007.
They really ought to layoff the entire brickhouse team. That group seems to be perpetually stuck about 12-24 months behind the rest of the interwebs...Yahoo is better of buying companies and shutting them down 12 months later than building them and shutting them down 12 months later (at least the small companies can make some $$$ in the process).
this will either be death or acquisition for the other lifecasting sites.
Interesting to see what happens. Personally I think the technology has become a commodity and unless one of the live streaming sites gets way out in front quickly Yahoo will still win.
They have a platform to market to 130M uniques per month. Nobody else can fight against that.
The only companies that don't do well for Yahoo are either a bad idea or outmoded. In a sense, Yahoo acts as a good litmus test. If lifecasting is a good idea or not (if good web ideas are gauged by traffic, which they are) will be decided by yahoo.
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