Yahoo Launches Live Video Service — Prematurely

Seems Yahoo is adding a third prong to its video strategy: live video. They’ve just launched Yahoo Live, a live streaming service similar to Ustream. It’s slow and it keeps going down, though. The lack of archiving is also a pain. Looks like a premature launch to me.

Yahoo Messenger has always been known for its rich chat capabilities, so synchronous online video seems like a natural fit for Yahoo. I don’t know if Google will (or even if they should) follow suit — they rule all asynchronous Internet communication (easier to monetize), but they’re very minimalist when it comes to synchronous communication (witness Gtalk).

Until now, live video was very much the realm of risky little startups. While I must wonder why little startups can handle live video consistently while a giant like Yahoo can’t, I must commend Yahoo on launching something that could synergize well with their existing strengths. Now if only they could scale the damn thing.