Given all the chaos this week surrounding Microsoft’s bid to take over Yahoo, it’s not surprising that a new Yahoo product launch wouldn’t have an abundance of exuberance attached to it. Still, the only word anyone got that Yahoo Live has gone live is a three word post on Bradley Horowitz’s blog: “Live is live” (Horowitz is head of the Technology Development Group at Yahoo).
Yahoo Live allows anyone with a webcam to stream live video of themselves to a dedicated site. They call it “a platform for live video.”
It is very similar to existing live streaming services like Stickam, Justin.tv and Ustream and Blogtv. Users create a channel, authorize their webcam and start broadcasting to the public. Other people can drop by and watch, or choose to participate via video, sound or text chat.
We’re still testing it, but for now the service is very unstable and keeps going down. It’s also clearly got a ways to go with features – videos are not archived for playback, for example, meaning once it’s broadcast live, that’s it.
Users can set up profiles for themselves and track how many people have watched them stream live, how many broadcasts they have made, and how long total they’ve been on the air. When you’re in a streaming session with others, up to five other people can be shown on your screen at the same time, one of which is the main presenter and four others who are simply in the session. Everyone else can be seen in a chat room associated with the session, and these sessions can also be embedded around the web.
Right now it looks as though Yahoo has hired two people – one of which is a girl who will sing songs on request – to help launch the site by providing some ongoing content. Yahoo has also set up a Twitter account that you can follow to see who’s streaming at a given time. Want to pull out information from Yahoo Live and access it elsewhere? There’s also an API available.
Update: Yahoo’s Chad Dickerson responds below in the comments about the stability issue.
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Anyone know the delay on live chat/video these days?
Google is so going to do this with YouTube now, and then the crunch will be on the smaller startups.
Another platform to test.
Arrington: You’re invited to write about my upcoming live conversations with some local startups in Boulder — Or is that not gossip worthy?
The end of cable as we know it…
almost one year later turns out the service has disappeared… I guess they did not work on it very much
What a bizarre coincidence it is called Live.
If they are acquired by Microsoft, will it be called live.live.com?
Cheers,
Randy
This technology is the future of expos and conferences.
Imagine exhibitors adding this access feature to their booths so that others around the world can view and interact – not just those physically attending that conference
Streaming video of boring people and their boring lives and their boring stories about their boring jobs, boring friends, boring pets and boring parents.
I can’t wait.
Yahoo launched blogTV…but not as good as blogTV…good luck!
Wouldn’t it be better to but an exiting platform that is WORKING?
i can’t get it to work – it just sits on a flash loading screen… the main page does load.
i guess the goal here is to have people sit on yahoo which they could then monetize…
is there an embed option into a blog? that would certainly get things moving quickly – or would the blogger need to use the api?
Try it on a ligher Browser.
http://www.jhat...lerHomePage.htm
I can’t hardly quit techcrunch.
Mike, If you are soo good at politics, startup, attacking people’s deadpool startups, sneak Google jet, and take risk. Why wouldn’t you join Donald Trumps’ “The Apprentice”?
I want to see how you fit the young clients. I don’t think any kids will ever ever listen to your techcrunch’s mind & leadership. If you believe they will listen to you. Join The Apprentice. People like to see how powerful you are.
Can you win “The Apprentice” game?
Looks like Ustream is the only one who can scale! Good luck Yahoo!
Ustream say YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Needless to say, we’re aware of and not surprised by the stability issues (ironically, someone sent me a message via Twitter about the servers getting pounded and Twitter timed out just before it delivered the message! C’est la vie.) This is an experiment (see our post on Yahoo! Next for more about the product and API — http://next.yah...rld-is-watching ).
“Keep in mind that Y! Live is an experimental release. The Advanced Products team is a small incubation team at Yahoo! – our mission is to build stuff and launch it quickly, and respond to market feedback. Y! Live is a limited capacity release, so bear with us as and we may reach our limits in periods of high traffic. Our top priority now is to hear your feedback – send your comments to ylive@yahoogroups.com , follow our twitter feed, and check out the blog to stay with the conversation.”
The entire Yahoo! Live team could fit into a minivan with room for everyone’s luggage (this is a small team). We’ll keep working on it. In any case, we definitely have a star on our hands with Sheena (the woman in the screenshot at the top of the post).
Question? Are ustream user going to jump ship for Yahoo.live Streaming?
Well we can safely say SAYO NARA Ustram and Justing.tv It is Yahoo time and all Rats are jumping ship and joining Yahoo or MicroHoo…
R.I.P.
Why watch boring Live stream when you can watch Full bollywood movies only on Movie MAZIC. http://moviemaz...x.php?Q=fullvid
I am on there too Yeah, but can’t wait till google releases something like it.
For now i like stickam.com, justin.tv and ustream.tv
I think there is a much better service out there called Qik. Qik lets you stream live video from your phone…yes, I said phone. Qik is an application that resides on the device that you are using, it has to be a supported device, like the N-Series from Nokia. Once you are there, you sign-up, and you are streaming from your mobile phone!
Check it out at http://www.qik.com and my channel at http://www.qik....m/appleuniverse
I also use uStream.tv and other streaming services, but I have yet to try Yahoo! LIVE. Well, I can to wait until it becomes active again
Also, check out my podcast, Apple Universe at http://www.appl...ersepodcast.com! We are launching a new site soon….
ok Yahoo.Live is yaking right out of the starting gate!
BEen on this for a few hours. Its cool. Really cool. They need to sort out the stability issues though
I will come back in a month when they have it all working.
Looks like you guys have a typo in the ustream link. It’s ustream.tv (not .com)
Please Yahoo.Live Do it right! I want this thing to work! Make it happen for Cjay! One More thing… Make your chat IRC. If you go for the IRC you have a winner! I’m so excited!
Wow, this post is such a rip-off of rev2.org’s coverage, it makes me ashamed to read TechCrunch. I’ve been watching this news flow by for the last couple of hours, and I swear they bet you guys by at least half an hour in terms of posting. Being a small blogger myself, I don’t think it’s right that big bloggers get to rip off the small ones and get away with it!
http://www.rev2...g-service-live/
Huh, weird, I thought I read this one already….
http://seekinga...ce?source=yahoo
Given all the chaos this week surrounding Microsoft’s (MSFT) bid to take over Yahoo (YHOO), it’s not surprising that a new Yahoo product launch wouldn’t have an abundance of exuberance attached to it. Still, the only word anyone got that Yahoo Live has gone live is a three word post on Bradley Horowitz’s blog: “Live is live” (Horowitz is head of the Technology Development Group at Yahoo).
Yahoo Live allows anyone with a webcam to stream live video of themselves to a dedicated site. They call it “a platform for live video.”
It is very similar to existing live streaming services like Stickam, Justin.tv and Ustream and Blogtv. Users create a channel, authorize their webcam and start broadcasting to the public. Other people can drop by and watch, or choose to participate via video, sound or text chat.
We’re still testing it, but for now the service is very unstable and keeps going down. It’s also clearly got a ways to go with features – videos are not archived for playback, for example, meaning once it’s broadcast live, that’s it.
Users can set up profiles for themselves and track how many people have watched them stream live, how many broadcasts they have made, and how long total they’ve been on the air. When you’re in a streaming session with others, up to five other people can be shown on your screen at the same time, one of which is the main presenter and four others who are simply in the session. Everyone else can be seen in a chat room associated with the session, and these sessions can also be embedded around the web.
Right now it looks as though Yahoo has hired two people – one of which is a girl who will sing songs on request – to help launch the site by providing some ongoing content. Yahoo has also set up a Twitter account that you can follow to see who’s streaming at a given time. Want to pull out information from Yahoo Live and access it elsewhere? There’s also an API available.
Maybe he just swiped it from you.
is it something like youtube
sex webcam
)
but seriously good product if it works well, ppl can shiwcase singing,dancing watever with live audience and commenting them.its better than recorded u get immediate feedback and correct, similar to sex webcam . lol
Brilliant. This is the reason why Y! shouldn’t be sold to MSFT. It shows they are willing to bring products to the market that even young start-ups can’t, i.e Justin.tv BTW-when’s the last time we’ve seen or heard from Jutsin?
LIVE.yahoo.Com Sounds like a push to Microsoft to make it all fuzzy and warm. I guess its better then Ystream.tv, that leaves me kind of wondering should I even bother. Then we have twitter.com/YLIVE, and that makes me question life in general. What about Googles interest in yahoo?
Will Google push out a Gstream.tv or .com I think we are on the edge of the video streaming service wars. Live.Yahoo.com is another player about to enter the arena. As a war vet of streaming services, I think its great to see what Yahoo might have in the works, but please dont ask me to put another shoe on my head! I think that most of the streaming service players have not yet figured out a way to pay people for the content they create. Just remember you are the ones creating the content for these streaming services and I would hope that you value your content enough to consider being payed for what it is you do and what it is that you create. At some point in time these streaming services will start asking for money for that premium video streaming account that you have become so addicted too. One question would be, is it really necessary for content to be LIVE? Youtube has done very well with prerecorded content. The BUZZ right now is “LIVE”,that 15 minutes of fame that we are all looking for. Can most people handle live content creation and sustain the flow required to maintain an audience? Is there really anything about Yahoo users thats intrigung enough for Live.Yahoo.Com to step up to Live video streaming plate? I’m not so sure, and I don’t think the players in the arena have any real answers either. Just be ready for the hecklers, The Anonymous http://www.yout...h?v=DNO6G4ApJQY and the general influx of people who will see your face on a streaming service coming to a computer near you. I’m not saying don’t have fun with these streaming services, but most people who watch these live video casts are not in the market for another dog and pony show, then again, I’m probably wrong.
And thats the Suger Coated Tech Crunch!
So, at a time when Y! struggles to make enough money to saitisfy shareholders, and is at risk of a buyout, they launch this copycat crap? Nobody can monetize any of this either. How many loss-leaders can you have?
What’s Y!’s strategy? Find the least ‘monetizable’ services to provide and bleed?
That company needs MS’s help. This makes me sick. Eyeballs were never the problem and Mr. Dickerson needs to be fired immediately for:
1) Ripping off the 4 or 5 startups already in this space (complete lack of any new features)
2) Choosing a space that will not generate click-thrus/ and or $ (live streaming is about community not going to some other site)
3) Stating, “In any case, we definitely have a star on our hands with Sheena (the woman in the screenshot at the top of the post).”
Bring on the porn!
Launches like this are why Yahoo is in trouble. I hate to say it, but yahoo has proven itself to be a smart acquirer but as far as internal development goes, they just aren’t hot… yet they are constantly cranking out new things like this… (their developer API is hotness, their maps are ok but Google has simply trumped them on every single aspect of their map)
live = lame (without the possibility of cool)
mosh= lame
360 = lame
answers = nifty
maps = eh
API’s = cool
mail = the bomb
news = crap
yet
delicious = cool
flicker = cool
mybloglog = cool
zimbra = cool
hmmm…. looks like Yahoo should have trimmed the dev. dept. down a LOT and beefed up the legal dept. (for to make more of them fancy acquisitions… they missed some key acquisitions… they should have bought feedburner but they missed that one pretty big… too much focus on in hosue dev, not enough focus on acquiring quality more startups to expand their reach ).
We’re still testing it, but for now the service is very unstable and keeps going down. It’s also clearly got a ways to go with features – videos are not archived for playback, for example, meaning once it’s broadcast live, that’s it.
I’m still waiting to create my channel…it’s been 5 minuts of nothing.
This reminds me of “Earthcam.” I think it was called. I remember when I had just moved here back in 2002. A friend and I use to chat with people via my web cam. I think the place was called “Earthcam” or something like that.
It was just a matter of time before this was done. I think Yahoo’s timing is perfect on this release.
- Shelon Padmore
Are you going to brodcast your boring self too? :p
@ Keith Shepard
Good
ggggggggggggggg
Another Yahoo! project that teased their members and closed it down
I really like livevideo com
Maybe yahoo should borrow/pay for the technology.
Why wasn’t livevideo mentioned here. Much better than those other sites.
Don’t Hate
the best I have seen yet is this new HD live streaming site.
http;//www.bitiptv.com