It’s tempting to dismiss this as a case of “too little, too late” – Microsoft and thousands of shareholders are already at Yahoo’s door. Still, the company’s performed an overhaul of its video site, and things are looking at least mildly impressive.
One of the biggest complaints about YouTube and its competitors – video quality – has been addressed by allowing users to upload bigger files (there’s now a cutoff of 150 megabytes). Also, there’s what the Yahoo Video Blog labels “a 16:9 cinematastic player that’s far ahead of what most sites are offering.”
Yahoo’s “Kent” then continues, “Yahoo! Video is now about the whole spectrum of video found throughout Yahoo!, including music, movies, TV, news, sports, and a whole lot more. And we’re still committed to featuring the best videos from our talented community of independent video creators.”
Perhaps there’s nothing revolutionary here; users aren’t going to flee Dailymotion, Metacafe, and whatever else is out there in order to experience the new Yahoo Video. We wouldn’t be surprised it there’s a bit of a shift, however, especially since Yahoo Video has put the new Indiana Jones trailer on its front page.
Finally, to both give Yahoo one more compliment and not let it off the hook for past failures: unlike Yahoo Live following its launch, Yahoo Video is actually working.
