Inside Online Video

Yahoo Matching Google’s Two-Pronged Video Strategy

by Mike Abundo on February 3rd, 2008

With the release of Video Sitemaps, Google solidified its two-pronged approach to video: storage via YouTube, and search via Sitemaps. Knowledge gleaned from storage powers innovation in search: remember that YouTube videos got thumbnails in the SERPS before Sitemapped videos did.

Yahoo’s matching that two-pronged approach, but in reverse order: Yahoo Video primarily provides search, and soon Flickr Video may provide storage. Dan Farber just received an email from Yahoo stating their plans to enhance Yahoo Video — even as they plan Flickr Video, which they’ve been talking about since August.

I’m still underwhelmed by Yahoo’s nebulous vision for Flickr Video, but YouTube was called “Flickr for video” when first launched. At least Yahoo is trying to see both sides of the video equation, the same way Google does.

If Microsoft buys Yahoo, however, we may see an exodus from Flickr on principle alone. Yahoo’s video strategy could become one of the first victims of the merger.

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