---
title: "YouTube and Yahoo Introduce Online Video Channels"
date: 2006-06-05
author: "Richard MacManus"
categories:
  - name: "ReadWriteWeb"
    url: "/category/readwriteweb.md"
tags:
  - name: "2006"
    url: "/tag/2006.md"
---

# YouTube and Yahoo Introduce Online Video Channels

Interesting moves in the online video market as [YouTube](https://web.archive.org/web/20111025205842/http://www.youtube.com/) announced “a major upgrade of its Web site” last Friday, *just a day after*[Yahoo](https://web.archive.org/web/20111025205842/http://video.yahoo.com/) announced its own video upgrade. Both have introduced a channels feature – similar to tv channels, or so they like to claim. Yahoo’s June 1 [press release](https://web.archive.org/web/20111025205842/http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060601/tc_nm/media_yahoo_video_dc_1) was entitled: ‘Yahoo makes Web video search more like TV channels’. The very next day [YouTube announced](https://web.archive.org/web/20111025205842/http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060602/tc_nm/media_youtube_dc_1) its own channel feature, enabling users “to subscribe to channels that focus on the latest work of favorite artists or topical themes.”

In the [Yahoo Video site](https://web.archive.org/web/20111025205842/http://video.yahoo.com/), a channel is defined as:

> “A channel is a series of videos from the same source or user. If you like a channel you can add it to your Favorites page.”

Here’s what a Yahoo Video channel looks like:

And here’s an example of a YouTube channel:

## Channel Comparison

Yahoo’s channels have all the usual ‘user-generated content’ features – ratings, tags, subscribe buttons, review. To set up a video channel, you click on ‘My Studio’. It’s all pretty slick and has a ‘professional’ feel to it.

YouTube’s channels seem **a lot more social** – and blog-like. You can view subscribers, connect with them, leave comments in channels, send messages, add the channel owner as a friend, etc. All the features you’d find on MySpace or another social network.

The channels I found on YouTube were predominantly **of individuals**, whereas on Yahoo I mostly found channels **by entities** such as website brands (or maybe I just didn’t look hard enough). So I do get the sense that YouTube’s channels are much more of a personal thing for YouTube users, whereas Yahoo is pitching their channels more like… well, more like a tv channel. But that distinction makes this quote from the YouTube press release seem kind of odd:

> “YouTube said that it aims to move beyond depending on the latest hit videos, which spread like wild fire across the Internet via e-mail. Instead, it wants to create a personalized programming experience akin to TV viewers surfing channels with a remote control.”

The “personalized programming experience” I can dig, but why compare that to tv channel surfing with a remote control? Ugh! I don’t like this comparison to broadcast tv and I’m not sure why YouTube is going down that track, when they’re promoting what is essentially a video social network. What’s social about sitting on a couch and tv channel surfing?

Other than that, I like YouTube’s more SNS approach. It’ll be interesting to track YouTube and Yahoo as they each pursue online video channels in slightly different ways.

*Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/youtube_and_yah.php))*