Damion Chaplin
06-03-2006, 08:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,125944,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,125944,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Yahoo today launched a new site designed to make it easier for Web users to find and share videos. The site builds on Yahoo's existing video search capability and will compete with video search services from Google, AOL, Microsoft's MSN, and other video-sharing sites like YouTube.com and MySpace.com. Visitors to video.yahoo.com can store their favorite videos, browse based on category, and upload their own videos to the site. Site visitors can review and rate videos and also embed the Yahoo Video player in their own Web sites or blogs to share videos. When searching, users will access a Yahoo database that combines the music, news, sports, and other videos Yahoo hosts with content produced elsewhere on the Web."</i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/Yahoo_video.jpg" /> <br /><br />I've never been a huge fan of these 'indi' video sites, but always found them to be of some amusement for a little while. I do, however, know a number of people who live for this kind of stuff. A big problem I find in these types of sites is the codecs required to watch the videos. They're all uploaded by different people, who all use their own preferred codec. I went to check out the new Yahoo video service, and the very first video I clicked on gave me a message "You must have Flash 8.0 to run this video." OK, I said, but there's no link to download the newest flash player. Or any of the other more popular players. And since I wasn't really that interested in watching a talking parrot, I moved on. Has that been your experience as well? Are you a big fan of these types of sites? If so, what do you think of Yahoo's new service?