Yahoo launched "The 9",
a daily countdown of the nine "weirdest and
funniest photos, sites, stories and videos on the 'net". It's curious
to see a daily webisode from one of the world's largest online players
that borrows so heavily from television, to its major detriment.
Rather easily-digestible series of clips, we get a talking head, who describes each piece of content as if she were a
newscaster. The biggest drawback here is that the whole point of viral content that it needs no
explanation?
There are plenty of sites that use the wisdom of crowds to surface
"the best" of the web every day. Yahoo could do so much more. If the
goal is to get users away from YouTube, Yahoo needs to add something of
value to each clip.
It would have been nice if they had harnessed search engine data? The company could trace the
epicenter of a particular clip, and map its spread across the country.
It would also be interesting to see what is popular with retirees or
students from a particular college? How does "viral" differ in Japan
or Finland?
This is in beta version maybe Yahoo will come up with something a bit more innovative in weeks to come. View the 9 at http://9.yahoo.com
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