Live, from London, it's IT Blogwatch: in which Yahoo launches it's shiny new live video streaming service (which promptly explodes). Not to mention the evolution of tech company logos...
Michael Arrington reports:
Given all the chaos this week surrounding Microsofts bid to take over Yahoo, its not surprising that a new Yahoo product launch wouldnt have an abundance of exuberance attached to it ... Yahoo Live allows anyone with a webcam to stream live video of themselves to a dedicated site ... similar to existing live streaming services like Stickam, Justin.tv and Ustream and Blogtv. Users create a channel, authorize their webcam and start broadcasting. [more]
Marshall Kirkpatrick adds:
The rumored launch of Yahoo!'s live video service became reality tonight at Live.Yahoo.com. I'm covering it live, in video below. It looks pretty good though early tests are experiencing scaling issues ... The service combines many of the best practices developed by early explorers of the medium, tiny startups that must be very worried tonight. Part BlogTV, part Mogulus and just plain better than UStream ... live video is going to be huge. [more]
Yahoo's Michael Quoc gushes:
Were excited to share with you Yahoo! Live, a new experiment in live video from the Advanced Products team at Yahoo! ... For broadcasters: Youve been posting your stuff to MySpace and YouTube. Now, connect with your fans in real time ... For developers: Check out our developer preview of our API and embeddable components ... Keep in mind that Y! Live is an experimental release ... limited capacity ... so bear with us as and we may reach our limits in periods of high traffic. [more]
No kidding, says Mathew Ingram:
Well, it was fun while it lasted. Yahoo Live went, er live earlier this evening, and promptly keeled over and died ... While it was up and running, though, it looked like a pretty killer life-streaming product ... If it can stay up, that is. [more]
Jordan Golson joins in the fun:
Sadly, Yahoo seems to be running out of server capacity and is streaming only intermittently. Yahoo's Bradley Horowitz announced in his Twitter feed that "live.yahoo.com is, well, live... Help us crush it with load." I guess he wasn't kidding. [more]
Joe Hunkins quacks up:
Who projects server capacity over there? Based on the current home page of Yahoo live it appears it is only handling a few thousand streams when the thing went down ... woefully inadequate capacity to handle the huge interest in the beta ... Im not at all bullish on the monetization potential of this type of communication, let alone monetization of video clips like those at Youtube. [more]
Yahoo's Chad Dickerson fights back:
Were aware of and not surprised by the stability issues ... this is an experiment ... The entire Yahoo! Live team could fit into a minivan with room for everyones luggage (this is a small team). Well keep working on it ... Our top priority now is to hear your feedback. [more]
Liz Gannes is sympathetic:
The site has had a hard first day ... with 2,609 concurrent viewers last time I checked, more than any other live video aggregator I went to in the course of writing this article tonight ... P.S. A simple way to my heart, live video sites? Be the first one Ive seen that doesnt auto-play video, with sound, whenever I load the page. [more]
And finally...
Buffer overflow:
- Microsoft Watch:The Vista SP1 RTM Question
- Chris Nerney: Where Irony Is A Four-Letter Word
- Coding Horror: Extending Your Wireless Network With Better Antennas
- Vint Cerf: We've lost a giant
- Mike Masnick: Gov't Says Second Life + Online Anonymity = Terrorism
- Bruce Schneier: With iPhone, 'Security' Is Code for 'Control'
- Jon Stokes: IBM shrinks Cell to 45nm. Cheaper PS3s will follow
- Iface thoughts: OpenID Gets Chairs From Big Players
Other Computerworld bloggers:
- Preston Gralla: First tests: Vista SP1 is slower than pre-SP1 at file copying
- Mitch Betts: Blog chatter can triple music sales
- Eric Lai: Windows smartphone: the pocket-sized wingman that turns you into a Ladies Man
- Sound Off: Linux Air: Hitting the road with the Eee PC
- Everett Lockhart: Getting it done versus getting it done right
- Ken Mingis: Apple exec touts MacBook Air innovations
- Mark Hall: XenServer goes platinum
- Don Tennant: Dear Michael Dell
- Preston Gralla: Hands-on tests: XP file copying leaves Vista in the dust
- Michael R. Farnum: OLPC Security Fears
- Shark Tank: How to build on a reputation
- Douglas Schweitzer: Ford wants you to keep on trucking!
Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 22 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You too can pretend to be Richi's friend...
Previously in IT Blogwatch:
- Yahoo sees Microsoft deal price cheapen (and warningz)
- Cut cables? Conspiracy conjectures! (and SP1 soon?)
- Amazon loudly Audible (and freudian finger puppets)