Yahoo! Live – What’s on your webcam?
February 8, 2008 on 9:15 am | In News | 6 Comments
Yahoo! has a small group in San Francisco known as the Advanced Products (AP) team. Designed to be an incubator for new products and services, the AP team develops new ideas and quickly turns them into working products we can test with our users. Their latest experiment is called Yahoo! Live, and if you’ve got a webcam hooked up to your computer, I think you’ll enjoy playing around with it.
On Yahoo! Live, you can use your webcam to broadcast your own live video channel. Or just tune in to other people’s channels. The video and audio are in real time, and as you watch someone’s channel or broadcast your own, you can interact chat-room style with other viewers. On Yahoo! Live there are limitless channels and anyone can be a star.
Even if you don’t want to broadcast your own channel, you can still activate your webcam to broadcast while you’re viewing someone else’s channel. When you do, other viewers can see what you’re up to while they’re hanging out. Just click the “Go Live” button next to your webcam window in the Yahoo! Live window. Think of your webcam as the source of your display image; while you’re on Yahoo! Live, viewers identify you by what you’re broadcasting.
If you’re more the shy type and prefer to view Yahoo! Live channels without broadcasting your own webcam video, just be sure not to click the “Go Live” button once you’re signed in. If you do, click the “Stop” button to end your broadcast.
While you’re watching or broadcasting, you can see how many viewers are tuned in and follow along with the live chat. You can also jump into the conversation; just type in your text like you would in an IM conversation and then click “Send”. To find out more about the channel owner, click their “Profile” link beneath their window; to see a fellow viewer’s profile, click their name and then choose “View profile”.
Found a Yahoo! Live channel you want to share with others? Send them the link or click the “Embed Video” button below the channel window to copy some code you can then paste into your own website, blog, or social network profile to display the Yahoo! Live window. This is also a great way to spread the word about your own channel if you’re a Yahoo! Live broadcaster.
Click here for more information on getting started with Yahoo! Live or visit their blog at http://www.yliveblog.com. To find out more about the experimental projects and products from the Yahoo! Advanced Products team, head over to their blog at http://next.yahoo.net.
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
P.S. – Keep in mind that Yahoo! Live is an experimental release with limited capacity. Yahoo! Live may reach its limits in periods of high traffic, so bear with us as the AP team tunes the service and scales it. Got feedback for the Yahoo! Live team? Send your comments to ylive@yahoogroups.com.
This looks like a pretty interesting project. Only bad thing I can think of is that I will be a big target for spammers if it become really popular. Other than that, I’m liking the concept.
Once I get the chance, I’ll be sure to check it out. It looks nifty =)
Comment by Infinite Luta — February 8, 2008 #
Great idea! I’ve experimented with myself and my rabbits and we came out sharp on the screens; if only I could get ourselves on the bands… .the channels
Comment by Pete — February 10, 2008 #
Is this another Windows only feature?
Comment by Sloar — February 11, 2008 #
[...] am writing this post with a big question in my mind. It started as soon as I found this new on my RSS feed reader. On Yahoo! Live, you can use your webcam to broadcast your own live video channel. Or just tune in [...]
Pingback by Live webcam with Yahoo! live, | Things To Live About — February 11, 2008 #
can I use this to broadcast TV station? if it is ok I will broadcast my favorite channel.
Comment by Demonyo — February 18, 2008 #
[...] am writing this post with a big question in my mind. It started as soon as I found this new on my RSS feed reader. On Yahoo! Live, you can use your webcam to broadcast your own live video channel. Or just tune in [...]
Pingback by Live webcam with Yahoo! live, | The Offline Blog — May 2, 2008 #