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Will Yahoo! Go Be the Next Media Bridge? 70

Posted by Zonk from the not-one-i-would-use dept.
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?"
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Will Yahoo! Go Be the Next Media Bridge? More

Will Yahoo! Go Be the Next Media Bridge?

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  • Yahoo copying again... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Duncan3 ( 10537 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2006 @07:43PM (#15250156) Homepage
    Clearly Bittorrent is their worst nightmare already... Yahoo is one step behind on this one.
    • Clearly Bittorrent is their worst nightmare already... Yahoo is one step behind on this one.

      It's only their worse nightmare because all they have is nightmares. "Two left feet and ugly shoes" is where the entertainment industry is at right now!

      Wake up media industry folks, we don't want your dead business model! Frankly, if Yahoo! is their second worst nightmare, then that's a pretty good start from where I'm sitting. More power to Yahoo! on this one!

      • Yahoo! can't! win! this! one! Do! you! know! how! annoying! the! exclamation! point! every! time! you! type! it! is!?
      • Yahoo itself is a nightmare. They're good a concepts, but the execution sucks. Yahoo Messenger is without a doubt the buggiest piece of shit I've ever used. Their games are riddled with flaws and bugs. Their support fucking terrible. I pray that this tanks along with the rest of that miserable company.
        • I don't like a lot of Yahoo's services, but I have to admit they offer some of the best web games available.
          I've also had zero problems with their messenger, but it's been a while since I've used it. Now I use gaim or trillian to conserve taskbar real-estate :P

  • It's not that great (Score:2, Informative)

    by jgartin ( 177959 )
    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.
    • The software sucks

      You are absolutely right. I have tried meedio in the past and wasnt impressed. I ended up uninstalling it in a couple of days. I finally settled with http://www.team-mediaportal.com/ [team-mediaportal.com] which is much better in terms of usabilty and features. Also it is opensource
      • There are a few problems with mediaportal. Fairly steep hardware requirements, and the need to pay the Microsoft tax. If I want to make a DVR/media box, I want to have something I can afford by scrounging the hardware and using free operating systems.
    • I have to agree, I downloaded the Yahoo Go! for TV and while the interface is pretty nice its performance is lackluster. The most glaring thing is that the video quality of live TV is worse than with MCE. It also doesn't include nor does it look like you can get a plug-in to have an audio playlist editor. I'd like to see good competition to MCE, but Yahoo isn't there yet.
    • The interface is a bit on the poor side, I can't deny, but I can see the market potential for a program that offers decent video management on my PC. I'm not about to switch OS to MCE in order to get a good video recording program (plus the DRM on the video is very off-putting!), which means currently I'm scripting my recordings- but if someone offered a simple progeram that has series links, easy "one-click" recording, etc. which the likes of Showshifter still manage to mess up, then I'd be all over it.

  • 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.

    • Or nothing, rather (Score:2, Informative)

      by jdbartlett ( 941012 )
      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

      • "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.

        Which web page were you looking at? Their Yahoo! Go for TV Beta [yahoo.com] web page has four very visible icons/links: Photos, Video, Music, and DVR [yahoo.com]. When I moused over the DVR icon/link I got:

        • Use the DVR to record TV shows and movies for future viewing.
        • Find what you want to watch with perso
        • 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

  • Not a bridge (Score:2, Interesting)

    by jdbartlett ( 941012 )
    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.
    • I agree with the bit about the phone, but your other points aren't very good.

      The TV portion of Yahoo! go looks to me to be a free (lower case 'f') alternative to Windows XP MCE. I don't think the idea is for people to think "Hey, that looks like a neat tool, I'll download it and play with it." It's for people who are somewhat serious about starting a media center PC but don't want to spend money on a new system (and you can't buy MCE without hardware because of Microsoft's licensing). I don't get the impres

      • 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
    • You have no idea what you are talking about...it is not aimed at people that don't have an HTPC, but the people who do and want a "better" interface. That being said, Yahoo Go! is not a better interface by any stretch.

      Seeing as I had Meedio before it was taken by Yahoo and beaten into submission, I would like to comment on how it has changed and why it's useless. First, I preface all this by saying it is still labeled beta and unless they stripped out the customization code (which I highly doubt), it may

      • You have no idea what you are talking about...it is not aimed at people that don't have an HTPC, but the people who do and want a "better" interface.

        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 tu

        • It supports more than 5 tuner cards. It supports every tuner card Meedio supported. The ones listed on the website are merely recommendations. And your argument is ridiculous. Just because you may/or may not have hardware capable of recording tv content to a PC, doesn't make the Yahoo! software less purposeful. A Tivo is capable of recording just like a VCR and without a subscription to Tivo, it is basically just that. However, with a subscription to Tivo, it does much more than what a VCR will. Yahoo's sof

          • You say:

            It supports more than 5 tuner cards... you make it pretty obvious that you haven't a clue what you're talking about .

            Contrary to your provocative comment, Yahoo says:

            To use the DVR features in Yahoo! Go for TV, you will need one of the supported TV tuner cards
            ...
            Use our Shopping List to make sure you get the right card. We currently support these tuner cards:
            1.) ATI TV Wonder Elite
            2.) ATI HDTV Wonder
            3.) AverMedia UltraTV 1500 MCE
            4.) Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2
            5.) NVIDIA DualTV MCE

            One pretty

  • How long before they become a label. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Freaky Spook ( 811861 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2006 @07:57PM (#15250246)
    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.
    • I would love for this to happen. I would even prefer a "Microsoft Records" to Sony Records, if only because of the competition with "Google Records" et al.

      At the moment all the record labels are in a cartel so they're (essentially) free to fix prices and treat artists like dirt.
      • I sincerely think this is the next 'paradigm shift' in the entertainment industry. Basically artists make a deal with a distributor directly, getting rid of all the middle men/distribution layers/etc. Of course, for the small artist this could be tough (no big advertising budget), but for a small growing band gives them a chance to sell locally, pay for advertising as they go, instead of indebting theirselves to Big Monkey for upteen records/years.

    • Didn't Apple already sign the Beatles?



      --
      (PROTIP: The above was a joke)
    • 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) fol
      • 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 wit
        • I thought it was fairly well-established that Microsoft has LOST money on the Xbox venture so far.

          That's not the point. As I said, MS has money to burn if they want to. The point is that they were a non-entity in the console world and now they're one of the top players.

          I would hardly call combining all that with a bit of hardware from established vendors much outside Microsoft's core compentency.

          Microsoft has made a lot of money by on Windows and Office. That's a very different world than video game cons

  • Every facet of our lives? (Score:3, Funny)

    by QRDeNameland ( 873957 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2006 @08:01PM (#15250261)
    FTA:

    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();

  • Law coming in 3, 2, 1... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2006 @08:04PM (#15250274)
    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.
    • No. Communism, for all its flaws, at least sorta tried to help out the average man. This is what we call propertarianism, the belief that everything should be property. Combines the worst parts of Communism and Capitalism.
  • 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
  • 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.
    • 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.
  • Media bridges? We don't need no stinkin' media bridges!
  • Yahoo recently partnered [yahoo7.com.au] 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 [ninemsn.com.au] years ago and I don't really understand why, as they haven't done anything interesting with it.

  • Farewell, myHTPC... er, Meedio. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by GreyDuck ( 192463 ) <greyduckNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Tuesday May 02, 2006 @09:32PM (#15250689) Homepage
    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...
  • 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............

  • 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.
  • No.

    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...!

  • 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.
  • Dibs! Just wanted to be first to say it.

    /runs off to get trademark.

    kulakovich

  • IPG? (Score:2)

    by Alsee ( 515537 )
    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

    -

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