In 2000, Yahoo! created what many consider the most innovative IPTV platform of its day, even when compared to what is available today. The Vision platform had more interactivity, more user customization then many existing platforms, and was ahead of its time.

Flash forward to September 20, 2006 with the announcement that Yahoo! has partnered with Current TV, Al Gore's Internet creation to form Yahoo|Current. The deal will leverage Currenttv's community of user-generated content, both consumer and professional.

Yahoo! will bring their global brand and reach along with four channels they will add to the mix, namely

They will add to the mix:

- Current Action: Action sports and news, such as Surf, Skate, Snow, BMX and FMX
- Current Buzz: Content from their Buzz network, which consists of what's on the minds of people and what's hot in popular culture.
- Current Driver: All about automotive, Drivers, Mods, Rides, Stunts & Crashes
- Current Traveler: Globe-trekking BBS of video postcards

The four channels will also be seen on Current's TV network, Al Gore said. Current is only available now in 30 million of the nation's 110 million homes with televisions acording to a Yahoo! article.

"The distribution reach and community of online viewers that Yahoo serves gives an unparalleled opportunity to connect the online video experience, including video-related content, with a mass audience," Gore said.

You will also see celebrity submissions; the current one is of U2. Their music has always been an important part of my collection and I still get a charge when I watch 'Where The Streets Have No Name', the 1987 masterpiece shot on a LA. rooftop. It saddens me however, to watch this ill-conceived and poor quality content, if a celebrity is going to shoot it, it should at least look good.

On the other hand, in looking back at the U2 video of 1987, I found this frame of a person in the crowd taking video of the impromptu concert. If this were shot today how cool would it be to blend that user-generated footage in with the footage the band shot? Well, it certainly would boost community to provide clips of the professional footage, which users could cut with their own content, or the content of other users, and create many different versions.

What is different between the two pieces of user/celebrity-generated content? The former has little content structure, is of poor quality and gets tiring in a hurry. The latter would add more cut-away footage to the event and draw in the user community in a fashion I think more compelling.

I am glad Yahoo! has taken another step forward in the space since they had pulled back earlier this year; I have high expectations for this space and know what is possible if companies had more vision and were willing to take more risk.