yahoo! video

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

Doodle-4-Google gets the search giant into more privacy trouble because of the possibility of storing children's Social Security numbers

iPad 2 might get a launch date as early as next week

Amazon Prime customers get Instant Streaming video with over 5,000 titles

China launches an official government search engine with Panguso

Mint.com gets new "Get Out of Debt" tools

Yahoo! Video gets rid of user-generated content, so download your uploads before March 14th

Yahoo announced Thursday that it has teamed up with MLB.com, the digital arm of professional baseball's operations, in a partnership that encompasses both video distribution and ad sales.

Considering the turmoil over at Yahoo, the three-year agreement could be either a home run or a strikeout.

On the video side, content from Major League Baseball's MLB.tv will be syndicated on Yahoo Sports through the 2010 season. This means that if you're a Yahoo user, you'll be able to watch live and on-demand baseball games on Yahoo Sports--provided that they're not in your home … Read more

Despite the immediate threat of a hostile takeover by Microsoft, Yahoo's kicked it into high gear. In just two weeks Yahoo has released a hot new product (Yahoo Live), announced mobile social communication tool OneConnect, acquired online video platform provider Maven Networks, killed off its music service and replaced it with Rhapsody, and launched a completely new version of collaboration suite Zimbra.

This morning the parade of changes continues with the relaunch of Yahoo Video. Besides an all new layout, Yahoo Video is coming a little closer to YouTube. It is emphasizing editor-chosen content alongside the most popular videos on the service. One of them being the new trailer for Indiana Jones, which oddly enough looks significantly better, and is available in HD on Yahoo's Movies property.

The Flash video player (the most important part of the service) has been given a face-lift with slightly higher resolutions and a new wide-screen display that can be embedded on blogs or other Web sites. User file size limits have been increased to 150MB, letting users upload larger videos files sizes that tend to come with wide-screen clips. Standard 4:3 video simply plays in the player with black bars on each side.

Also revamped are personal profiles. Users can create playlists and embed them on third party pages. Like YouTube's efforts, there are tiny thumbnails for each clip, and the creator can swap the order and choose whether it plays continuously.

New to the mix are "networks," which are a simple way to browse content by genre. The videos come from various Yahoo properties, and each network is skinned to match. It's a distinctively different feel at each network, and does a much better job at encapsulating content and the feel for each brand than YouTube's efforts with its partner channels.

I've embedded an example of the new video playlists after the break. Also, if you want to read more about the update, Yahoo's got a full listing of the changes on the Yahoo Video blog.… Read more

Yahoo announced on Tuesday that it has expanded its partnership with music mega-label Sony BMG to bring the company's music videos to its Yahoo Video platform.

The two companies already have an existing content deal, but this expanded agreement will add more video to Yahoo's catalog and allow Sony BMG artists' audio to be used in user-generated Yahoo audiovisual content. Additionally, Sony BMG media on Yahoo will be available in more regions across the globe.

Sony BMG artists include Bruce Springsteen, Alicia Keys, Bob Dylan, Britney Spears, and Avril Lavigne.

This is the latest in a series of … Read more

Category: Media

Yahoo Video is Yahoo's answer to YouTube and other similar video-hosting services. Users can search and watch a variety of clips, along with some commercial content from partners. They also can upload their own content and give it tags to help others sort through it. Users don't need to install anything special on their computers to play the videos, only a browser plug-in.

Similar to other modern day video services, any video on Yahoo Video can be embedded elsewhere on blogs, Web sites, and social-networking profiles. When users get to the end of a clip, they … Read more