What Yahoo Video Does Well, and Why it Doesn't Matter
Yahoo relaunched its video site this week. It's good. Really, really good actually, and superior to just about all of its competitors in terms of clean design, simple and intuitive nav, higher resolution vids, and bigger screens. Even the most mewl-happy noob could figure the site out. Unfortunately, it doesn't matter.
The first reason why is easy enough to suss: Yahoo has only 3% of the online vid market, way behind GooTube's 33%. Hard to have a party when all your friends are at someone else's house.
But the second, more subtle and interesting reason, may be that the vid-watching public has become so accustomed to YouTube's layout — which, honestly, is feeling more and more cluttered these days — that it’s becoming more difficult to acclimate one’s self to any new site.
Speaking just for myself, I spend so much time on YouTube that, while I can appreciate Yahoo’s new design, I still feel as awkward using it as when I’m, say, trying to navigate a friend’s unfamiliar TV cable channel guide.
Agree it's good. Agree it's moot at this point. Agree I'd personally prefer a user interface to which I'm accustomed. However if I'm Yahoo I'm designing differently for two reasons: a) YouTube has a lot working, but a lot is messy, b) consistency doesn't matter because it won't pry many away from YouTube. Its best target are new online-video viewers, who won't have as much as you and I to unlearn.
Posted by: nalts | February 18, 2008 at 06:30 AM
Completely agree, Nalts. Yahoo Video's traffic is clearly downstream from Yahoo.com. They're trying to satisfy an entertainment-seeking, relatively noobish user base while also providing the tools to compete tech-wise with YouTube.
Unlike other pundits, I think the decision to front trailers is a wise one. Not to mention putting Jumpcut links at the bottom, as only a small fraction of users will use it.
Posted by: Steve Bryant | February 18, 2008 at 03:11 PM