Slashdot Mirror
Will Yahoo! Go Be the Next Media Bridge?
wh0pper writes "Digital Trend has an interesting take on Yahoo! Go. With Yahoo's acquisition of Meedio, Yahoo! Go will be in the position to be everyones media bridge. With Yahoo!'s intended arrival in the TV environment, it aspires to become the user's guide to all media." From the article: "This would appear to be the worst of nightmares for traditional PayTV operators. Suddenly, they become part of a Yahoo!-defined walled garden of sorts, hidden behind the Yahoo!-branded user interface and reduced to a simple pipe that delivers broadcast television. Without their own proprietary IPG being used, how can they sell pay-per-view and VOD movies?"
Clearly Bittorrent is their worst nightmare already... Yahoo is one step behind on this one.
- Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
Yahoo Go seems like a good idea--on paper. The software sucks, though. Anyone who's downloaded it should know what I'm talking about. It can't use my tuner card. The purple hurts my eyes. The menus are just a bunch of text without graphics. The music playback portion seemed to work ok. And, the whole interface was much more responsive than MCE/BeyondTV/anything I've tried for Windows.
No seriously, from their website (yahoo go! that is), it seems that this is a piece of software that will turn you computer into a dvr and act as a google desktop search sidebar and allow your mobile phone to access media files at yahoo
I don't know if this will take off but it seems like an ok idea
Some caveats though, no support for linux or Mac, and it's probably loaded with DRM.
Yahoo was claiming ten years ago that they were going to be the next media bridge.
It didn't work then, and I don't see any reason why it's going to work now.
IF you happen to have a Nokia 6 series phone, IF your TV is close enough to your PC that they can be connected, IF you happen to have a video card that uses a connector that matches your TV, IF you don't mind your Windows XP (only) desktop being cluttered with Yahoo's tool...
This isn't a bridge, it's a landfill! If I had all these wonderful pieces of technology, I'd already be able to use them together without needing Yahoo! Go.
Meedio was an amazing peice of software. Hopefully yahoo keeps it going.
Plugins were the heart of meedio and hopefully yahoo embraces them.
With Apple, Microsoft, Google and Yahoo all pushing heavlily on the media market and trying to deliver new distribution methods I wonder how long it will be before one of them cuts out the RIAA entirley and starts signing up artists directly.
It makes sense if you ask me, plus it would give them leverage over the industry.
However, this is the first time a system operator (be it a virtual one) has attempted to embrace their users in every facet of their lives.
if (TV == every_facet_of_our_lives) we_are_fucked();
Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.
Or does anyone expect cable TV and the **AA sit and wait?
I bet my rear that as soon as it cuts into their sales and ad income, we'll see heavy lobbying towards some regulation.
*sigh* What happened to good ol' capitalism? Regulations and legal red tape springing up everywhere to protect outdated and obsolete markets. I sometimes wonder if communism finally won.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
If it did all those things, it would be everything. It doesn't, though.
"it seems that this is a piece of software that will turn you computer into a dvr"
I don't see this on their website, rather, I see instructions on how to connect your computer to your TV so that you can view media on your TV. Anyone with the right video card, TV, and a cable long enough to reach both can do this anyway without installing Yahoo! Go.
"and act as a google desktop search sidebar"
The most important feature in Google Desktop is its Spotlight-like indexing. Again, I don't see this listed as a feature of Yahoo! Go. All Yahoo! Desktop really does is bring various Yahoo! online services (contacts, messenger, mail, music) together on one screen. Save the space and your desktop and just use those services online.
"allow your mobile phone to access media files at yahoo"
Firstly, this will only work if you have a Nokia 6 series phone (Yahoo supports no other make/model). You can use "Go Mobile" to access your Yahoo! Contacts, Yahoo! Photos, Yahoo! Messenger and Yahoo! Mail. Anyone who's used WAP on their cellphone will recognize all these as services Yahoo! already offers all cellphone users as online tools.
OMG OMG PONIES!!! i'M AN VULTURE FUNDING GUY and OMG this is teh GREAT and OMG I want to throw cash! PLS tell me where to throw the CA$H!
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." (Diderot)
I am sick-up-and-fed with Yahoo mergers and co-branding exercises. Their services are here today and gone (or drastically changed) tomorrow. I've had domains through them, pagers, faxing deals, and they all end up useless at some point. They generally do a good job at first, but then they lose interest and the service (like their e-mail) gets dreadfully slow or parts of it stop working, get transferred to some third-party company or just disappear one day without notice.
It used to be that these moves had the same sense a Google or Microsoft moving into and then taking over some new market, but these days it has the feel of desperation to it. Can't develop their own stuff, so just grab onto anything to slow the slide to irrelevance.
Five minutes before seeing this article I was in the process of transferring my last domain from them. Good riddance, almost.
Yes, in theory Communism was the idea to give to the average man what he needed. In fact, a small ruling class had everything, the majority had little to nothing.
Sounds familiar?
Actually, both systems are, in reality, the same. Capitalism is just harder to see through. In Capitalism, you have that dangling carrot that keeps telling you, if you just work hard enough, you can get up there as well. Bullspit. It's exactly the same shit in both systems. Whether you can't buy anything because it ain't there or because you are already SO deep in debt that you can't afford it makes essentially no difference.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Hi;
I can't see how they're going to suddenly become A/V experts when they can't get audio and video working now.
I don't mean for direct-tv or a big dish, or broadcast. When can I realistically get my network tv shows, discovery channel, sci-fi channel, and HBO shows via some reasonably friendly interface and get the quality of broadcast sound and video to replace what I'm paying Time Warner for now via this set top shitbox?
iTunes sells a few shows. Yahoo may be doing something. NBC, ABC, and CBS are making some shows available. The quality, picture limitations, speed, and pain in the ass are all still prohibitive for this being workable. iTunes at two bucks a show is at least twice the price it should be, and the other avenues still basically stink.
When I can just buy my network pipe for connectivity and shop for my own content providers for video, music, phone, and whatever else....then I'll be happy.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
I think they meant to say, hidden behind the Yahoo!-branded user interface and reduced to a simple pipe dream that delivers broadcast television.
Media bridges? We don't need no stinkin' media bridges!
HTPCs are clunky, difficult to setup and expensive. Even Apple realizes this as they only put extremely limited funtionaltiy in their Front Row software. I'm betting the average joe is going to stick with his cable company/satellite provider.
Yahoo recently partnered with one of Australia's three TV networks, Ch 7. I'm not sure what they're planning on doing with it - MSN and Channel 9 did a similar thing years ago and I don't really understand why, as they haven't done anything interesting with it.
First came myHTPC, a clunky but serviceable bit of software which allowed me to run music playlists and (more importantly) watch anime fansubs on my (moderately) large television and (again, more importantly) listen to them on my nice audio system in the living room, all controlled by something like ATI's Remote Wonder.
Then came Meedio, which we had to pay for (and I did, gladly) but reduced the clunk-factor by (let's pick an arbitrary fraction) 2/3 and did a much better job of playing nice with the remote control hardware available to me at the time, namely the aforementioned Remote Wonder as well as Creative's LiveDrive IR remote.
Over the weekend, on a whim, I selected "Check for updates" and, hello? "A new update is available. Visit www.meedio.com to download." Righto! And yet... no. Yes, there's a 1.41 release. No, you can't have it (from regular channels, anyway; thank the gods for Google, natch). Now it's Yahoo! Go, a slick, useless lump based on a fair portion of Meedio's code but without any of the configuration capability (short of hand-editing the XML, which... um, no?) and, by the way, no apparent support for reading tags in music files. But hey, it's free!
I won't say "I want my thirty-five bucks back," 'cause I don't, and I'm generally pleased with my Meedio experience. I am, however, deeply chagrined that things have taken a turn for the blah.
Oh, by the way: If your current Meedio version reads Ogg Vorbis tags correctly, DON'T hunt down the 1.41 upgrade. Updating broke Vorbis tag reading on my system...
I'm only wearing black until they come out with something darker.
The backbone owners are holding Yahoo hostage looking for them to pay for access to cusomters. Then Yahoo moves into a position where they can hold the backbone owners hostage if they want to be able to have data to deliver to their customers.
head hurts............
I'm sorry, I'm to tired to be witty at the moment so this message will have to do.
Will! Yahoo! Go! Be! the! Next! Media! Bridge?!
... of course not. Go is a board game and Bridge is a card game.
In the past, every time a "traditional" distribution method was upset and replaced, it was because the new one took out at least one intermediate.
"we want to be the replacement intermediate" is a businessplan destined for failure.
The "Next Media Bridge" will be an ever morphing compendium of little bridgelets - producers of content serving it directly to their audience. Zero hour feedback, high-touch, closer audience relationship is all going to come into play here, and having a Big Neon Brand playing matchmaker will become a drag in time.
Next...!
Pi Ran Out
Note that Yahoo! announced their purchase of Meedio (which provides the DVR funcionality) just two weeks ago, so "beta" might not be a good description (alpha?).
This part of Yahoo! Go Beta (called Yahoo! Go Desktop) is only partially implemented. From that page: I think the GP incorrectly assumes the "Search" function of Yahoo! Go Desktop will be like Yahoo! Desktop Search, which does have the "Spotlight-like" indexing of Google Desktop. However, it appears to be more like the Yahoo! Search Widget from Yahoo! Widget Engine. The Search Widget appears to be limited to Yahoo! online content.TO START
PRESS ANY KEY
Where's the 'ANY' key? I see Esk, Kitarl, and Pig-Up...
Ok, so I didn't RTFA, but is that a verbatim quote? If so, it's amazing, and I'ma have that guy do my next resume, mthnk...
Pi Ran Out
I wonder how long it will be before one of them cuts out the RIAA entirley and starts signing up artists directly.
In a sense, they already are - there are already a bunch of self funded artists available on iTunes, Napster, etc. One of my buddies is available on virtually every electronic download/streaming service. I think his most recent count was around $12 after over a year.
The artists selling thousands of tracks are virtually all recorded and marketed at great expense. The public (and the money) follow what's presented to them. The charts on the unlimited music services (Napster, Rhapsody, et al) show that even when it doesn't cost a penny more to go exploring, the vast majority of the people stick with marketed music (even if it's what they hear in Starbucks rather than on MTV).
A really good recording session is not cheap. Shooting a video is not cheap. Marketing an artist is not cheap. For every artist that goes big and sells a million copies, there's dozens that fail. That's part of the recording business, and that's part of what the record labels deal with.
Consider for a moment - you can let someone else do the hard work and assume the risk and personally make five cents off of every track sold (and no matter who come out on top, someone's going to sell a bunch of tracks - you don't have to care who it is), or front the money for the recording, the promotion, all in hopes of making 70 cents per track. Now, also take into consideration that choosing artists and marketing them is far outside of your core competency (do you really want the guy that came up with with the Ellen Feiss campaign chosing what music should be recorded? Or Steve "Developers!" Balmer?). Why assume the risk, when someone else is willing to do so and let you skim a few cents off of millions of sales instead?
Remember, most businesses that expand from doing one thing really well into completely different markets tend to do really, really badly (MS and the Xbox are an exception to this, but MS also has a gajillion bucks to dump into projects. But they've not done very well in expanding other new markets). Google and Yahoo are all about finding and delivering digital content, not creating it. And Apple is all about facilitating a particular digital experience, specifically consuming it (and to a lesser extent, creating it).
Yes it is a cut/paste, but not from TFA, rather from the poster that I replied to. For some reason he got modded down. Beats me, I'd have modded him "+1 funneh" myself!
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." (Diderot)
Looks like I stand corrected on the DVR functionality. Of course, it requires a TV tuner for your PC (a $120 piece of hardware) and I hope most TV tuners come bundled with software to handle what they do, though probably not to the extent of Go's TiVo-like capabilities. Any software bundle that requires the user perform a hardware upgrade is probably doomed.
It's a real shame Apple didn't give the space/time/cents to pack something like this in with Mac Mini's FrontRow, Out Of Box DVR would have been a real TiVo killer.
The website lists the DVR features as though they were things the website user can't already do, which suggests to me that it's assumed the website user doesn't already have the hardware (especially since it provides links to hardware manufacturers). If someone isn't willing to spend money, they may balk at a $120 hardware upgrade (plus shop fitting costs, plus cables). It's not free by the time you've started.
I began using Yahoo! Widget Engine pretty soon after the company bought it from Konfabulator and until I switched to Mac and OS X Tiger, which comes with a nicer copycat tool called Dashboard. It's not the Widget portion of the desktop suite I find cluttering, it's the browser tools and Yahoo! Desktop. Admittedly, I haven't tried the browser tools (but have had to work around and sometimes 'fix' computers that have them installed) but I have in the past tried out Yahoo! Desktop. God knows why. I found it to be a distraction at best. Mostly, it was just clutter.
Really? The website seems to go to some lengths explain that the user will need to install a $120 TV tuner card to access the DVR functionality you're saying they already have. What's more, further proving my point, it only supports 5 different cards. Of course, if it's only aimed at people who already have one of those 5 cards...
New! Free! This software turns your PC into a DVR! (Requires PC with DVR-like capability.)
Ranks right down there with:
Build your own TV from scratch with our new Build-a-TV maual! And then record television by building your own VCR! All you need is a TV, a VCR, and a few cables!
Well, I for one will revel in considerable glee while some content-providers that are too full of themselves and over-price the crap out of their content-- get reamed up the butt with a red-hot poker. And I hope Yahoo! takes their time and gives it to them slowly for all the torqueing they've given us over the years. That said, I hope Yahoo! doesn't become the new boss, same as the old boss. We _could_ get fooled again.
I thought it was fairly well-established that Microsoft has LOST money on the Xbox venture so far. We'll see what happens with the 360, but it's only batting 500 so far. If the PS3 (and, to a much lesser extent, the Wiiiiii) is perpetually delayed or otherwise uncompetitive, Microsoft stands to make a bundle. Time will tell on that score.
Plus, I'm not convinced it's that far from their core compentency (and I'm trying REALLY hard not to make any jokes about Microsoft, OS/Office and compentency - so bear with me). Microsoft has the OS, the DirectX (including input, sound and graphics) as well as an established game studio. To top it off, they've also made hardware (input devices mostly, plenty of them gaming-oriented) and embedded Windows (OS and hardware). I would hardly call combining all that with a bit of hardware from established vendors much outside Microsoft's core compentency.
Dibs! Just wanted to be first to say it.
/runs off to get trademark.
kulakovich
Well...Verizon has FIOS, which delivers up to 30 mbps internet conneciton, as well as TV, DVR, and whatever else. That would break the cable companies ties...If you were in their coverage area. Seems that everytime some company comes out with some great whopper techno stuff, it is only available in remote corners of some town no-one has heard of. Why not make it available to EVERYONE!!! Sorry...Rant off.
----- I have bad karma for a reason! -----
IPG?
WTF is IPG?
IIRC TFA was liek ICTYBTIHTKY. BTW & FYI SOP I ReRTFA JIC PEBKAC (AKA ADD). AFAICS TFA is SNAFU N/T SOL. OMGWTFBBQ is IPG?? FWIW my SWAG it's RE: guide? Linky TLA FAQ || HHGTTG W/answer ASAP. TIA.
kthxbye
OB: P.S.
BYOB RHPS BDSM AYBABTU IANAL BSOD QED
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.