Yahoo has launched its own video website to take advantage of the soaring popularity of online video, writes CNET. The Yahoo Video site includes a search box at the top of the homepage; users can also browse by category or user-generated tags. If a video resides on another site, the "play" button takes the viewer to that site; otherwise, users watch the video on the Yahoo site, on an embedded video player. Some Yahoo Video pages will display banner ads, and eventually video ads.

Viewers will be able to read ratings and reviews and forward content and links to friends. Users can upload their own videos and track how many people have watched them. Users can also paste videos into their own blogs or sites, and create pages of their favorite videos and make those available as public play lists.

The site will compete with YouTube, AOL, Microsoft, Blinkx and Google Video.