New Technology TV

Internet giant Yahoo is scrambling to get in on the lucrative action of hosting homemade video clips from users across the globe. The early lead taken by the video upstart YouTube surprised all of the Web heavyweights, including Google and AOL. Now, all of the them, and probably even other currently unknown competitors are vying to become The destination on the web for the masses to enjoy watching the video content of others and to upload their own movies for others to see. YouTube seemingly overnight gained international popularity and grew to millions of users in a very short time. Based in the computer savvy area of San Mateo, YouTube is yet another rags to riches story of two twenty something computer geeks who rose to prominence in the span of only a few months.

Now the online video ventures of Yahoo are set to give YouTube stiff competition. They hope to garner some of the audience that YouTube boasts. Sharing homemade videos has become a new obsession of the tech knowledgeable set. It seems everyone has a video camera, or at least a digital still camera that has some video capability. Now the next Spielberg or Ridley Scott has probably already uploaded his creation on the Web for everyone to see. Yahoo is dividing the videos on their site into different categories. YouTube does the same thing, including a list of the most watched and most popular videos.

Google and AOL, rather late, by early 21st century Internet technology standards, to this homemade video party, are trying to play catch-up with YouTube as well. The partner of AOL, Time-Warner is in the testing stages of it’s own service that they plan to call Uncut Video.

Although Yahoo has had a video presence since 2004, they were caught unaware by the surging popularity of homemade video clips. They are based in the heart of Silicon Valley, in Sunnyvale, CA. Industry analysts attribute much of the rising popularity of video clips to the increasing availability of high-speed Internet connections that allow users to download the videos. YouTube’s site is easy to use, with navigable categories such as most viewed, most recent and most popular. A good search can be conducted using key phrases, and the sheer amount and subject matter of the content could keep any video buff busy for years… And this area of the Internet is expected to see ever-increasing growth for years to come. This new video venture for Yahoo comes in conjunction with the sprucing up of their site as well. Although there are some copyright infringement possibilities for anyone putting up this volume of videos on the Internet, Yahoo seems undeterred from moving in this direction to reap the rewards of having a popular video site.