Yahoo Underground went live yesterday, although the blog post on Yodel Anecdoteal is dated April 1. April Fools joke? I have no idea. There was no PR outreach on the product prior to launch, which is rare at Yahoo. And the blog post won’t accept comments, which is also odd.
But the Underground site itself is fairly elaborate (creation of the underground.yahoo.com subdomain, and lots of original video and conent). If this is an April Fools joke it sure was a lot of work to throw away on April 2nd.
It’s purpose is to “explores America’s fringe cultures with reporting brought to life with original songs and music.” It’s run by Brad Miskell, who writes for the New York Times and seems to be an actual person who is into fringe culture. The site is integrated into Yahoo News and readers are invited to submit their own content via blog posts, flickr photos and Yahoo Video.
Yahoo Underground introductory video below: