Yahoo Video Redesign Underwhelms

While I must congratulate Yahoo on experimenting with the flagship of their video strategy, Yahoo Video, the video industry blogosphere is underwhelmed.

Chris Albrecht sees the redesign as reflective of the company’s information silo woes.

The current featured video is the new trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The trailer’s video page contains the video, the standard synopsis rating and playcount info, comments and related vids. But what you’d never know from just looking at it is that Yahoo has the exclusive with that trailer, and that just a click away at Yahoo Movies, there is a special Indiana Jones mini-section with previous Indy movie trailers, cast photos and more.

To be fair, there is a small link on the video homepage to this section. But why not either take people to the movie page (where the trailer’s in HD) or have the videos page announce that there are extra Indy goodies on the movie page?

Also baffling is the lack of promotion for all the other things you can do with your videos — on Yahoo — once you’ve uploaded it. The only mention of the online editing capabilities of Yahoo’s Jumpcut is at the bottom of the page. Again, this is a wasted opportunity; why not put that in big, bold letters? “Hey, we have an easy way for you to edit your video and here’s how!” Furthermore, even though I was signed in to Yahoo Video, when I clicked on “Edit video with Jumpcut,” it took me to the Jumpcut section, but didn’t recognize me. I had to sign in again.

When companies get too big, they don’t communicate well internally. People protect their turf. There are politics involved. Watching or sharing video is becoming a key activity on the web, and Yahoo has the means to enhance that experience with all the tools it offers. But Yahoo didn’t.

Steve Bryant explains why the site shouldn’t try to become a YouTube rehash.

But the second, more subtle and interesting reason, may be that the vid-watching public has become so accustomed to YouTube’s layout — which, honestly, is feeling more and more cluttered these days — that it’s becoming more difficult to acclimate one’s self to any new site.

Personally, I liked the design better when it focused on across-the-Web search instead of oh-so-flashy content. I could use a great video search interface, but I don’t need an MSM-dominated version of YouTube.