Yahoo buys Jumpcut, Online Video Editing Service

Yahoo bought the online video editing service Jumpcut today. Jumpcut essentially tries to take Apple's iMovie video editing software, streamline and simplify it, and make it available on the Web. You can also share your finished creation. (I wrote about Jumpcut back in June in the NY Times.)

What's significant about this deal: Yahoo isn't betting that all its users are going to become filmmakers...but many will use Jumpcut to edit together their vacation videos, or string together cell phone footage taken at a friend's party -- and then share it with friends and family. Other users will use Jumpcut to remix other people's content, taking, for instance, a set of clips supplied by a band and setting them to one of the band's songs...or cutting together some of George W. Bush's greatest language stumbles of all time.

Here's an interesting project taking place on Jumpcut now: the indie movie `Power of Few' is trying to cast a bit part. Would-be actors have the opportunity to make a video of themselves reading a few lines, and they can use Jumpcut to cut together the scene. It's their chance to act opposite Q'orianka Kilcher (star of `The New World'). The best auditioner will get the part.