Google's popular video hosting site, YouTube, will support live streaming by the end of 2008, according to one of the site's originators. Co-founder and chief technology officer Steve Chen disclosed the information at a recent party in New York City, insisting that "We'll do it this year." The news is significant in that despite the dominance of YouTube, it has been beaten to the availability of streaming by sites such as Ustream and Justin.tv. YouTube may thus need live technology to retain market control.

According to Chen however, the interest in live technology has been around for some time, predating YouTube's acquisition by Google. "Live video is just something that we’ve always wanted to do," says Chen. "We've never had the resources to do it correctly, but now with Google, we hope to actually do it this year.” [via NewTeeVee]