Lycos introduced a new feature to its site today called Mix, which allows users to build their own list of video clips that they want to play, chat about or invite others to take a look at.
How it works is that you can gather clips from MySpace (NWS-A), Google (GOOG) or Youtube and then put them in categorized lists like sports, news or entertainment, etc. There is included in the feature a downloadable bookmark which enables you to add videos from around the Web without having to cut and paste URLs.
You can also designate whether your playlist is public or private. If it's public, then others are able to add clips to the list as well. When you put the list together, t
hen you can invite others to take a look at what you've got.
Lycos COO Brian Kalinowski said that "the goal was to create a product that allows groups of people to pull content from a variety of sources around the Web." He added that he thought of it more as an "art gallery experience" in contrast to Lycos Cinema. He says Lycos is the first to allow the gathering and building of personal playlists from outside sources.
The company plans to monetize it through banner ads and sponsorships. There are also plans to provide licensed video content that would include in-stream ads in the near future.
Lycos has dropped off in unique visitors the last year to 22.6 million, down from 24.7 million in December of 2005. Kalinowski attributes that to selling off of a number of their online properties, including quote.com, Matchmaker and Wired News.
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