Struggling portal Lycos (now owned by Korea’s Daum) had a great idea: combine online video with chat and a shared user experience. The fruit of that inspired idea, which can be done informally now simply by using a shared IM client and synchronizing the start of your YouTube video clip, is “Lycos Cinema.” Here’s more detail from Reuters.
Lycos is going to have to do some heavy promotion to get the attention of tweens, teens and college students, who are the only ones who have time for this. The service will also have to do two things:
- Nail the user experience
- Have great content
Any error or failure to deliver against those considerations will doom the service. Regardless, expect others to introduce similar features or capabilities. This is a natural.
Screenwerk 
November 13, 2006 at 8:27 pm
yeah, wud a good idea. I think about how I listen to WMR and chat at the same time about the news…plus the show host can drop links into the chat room on articles and such. This TV chat idea is a great one, just hope its implemented right…and Lycos is notorious for screwing up.
November 16, 2009 at 3:19 pm
[…] for publishers of all sorts, as well as for social media. Lycos awhile ago developed an ill-fated Lycos Cinema, which created a social-TV experience: chat with TV. As I said previously: However the little known […]