Friday, February 8,2008 @ 9:35am
Yahoo offers Y! Live video streaming site
Yahoo this morning took steps to up-end Google with Y! Live. The first service of its kind from a major web company, the feature aims to bring the same live recording seen from more focused sites such as Justin.tv or Ustream. Users can link a webcam or any other connected camera to the site and host live performances viewable from any Mac or PC with Adobe's Flash installed; show hosts can also interact with as many as four other primary guests as well as a much larger number of live chatters.
The service is also freely movable around the web. A programming interface permits Y! Live feeds to be ported to different websites and to integrate into different web apps. A Twitter feed is also currently available that helps keep track of when new shows are live.
This video service also represents the first fruits of a turnaround at Yahoo, the company says. The live streaming technology is the creation of a recently-established Advanced Products group and is one of Yahoo's few beta projects, having been released to the public in a limited-bandwidth test form just six months after it began. The service currently lacks features such as saving video for later viewing but is poised to expand over coming months.