Microsoft's Stream service aims to offer YouTube-like experience for businesses

Microsoft has announced the public preview of Stream, a new online video service that will offer businesses a way to upload and share internal clips with employees and partners.

Microsoft's blog post outlines the features of Stream, which sounds very much like what Google's YouTube offers for consumers:

  • Sign up in seconds: Get started with Microsoft Stream in as few as five seconds with easy signup and no credit card requirements.
  • Easily upload and organize your video: With easy drag and drop capabilities, upload your videos and organize them by either starting a channel or contributing to a channel based on team, group, topic etc.
  • Discover relevant content: Enhanced content discovery through "trending" videos powered by machine learning, as well as search by hashtag, most liked videos and other key search terms.
  • Watch anywhere, on any device, anytime: View videos in Microsoft Stream on all your devices from anywhere, anytime.
  • Secure video management: Manage who views your video content by determining how widely to share within your organization, and to what channels. Secure application access is enabled by Azure Active Directory, a recognized leader in identity management systems, to protect sensitive corporate content.
  • Follow what matters: Follow channels to see content you want in your Microsoft Stream homepage.
  • Engage with content: Socialize videos by sharing via email, "Like" your favorites and embed videos to webpages within your organization.

Microsoft Stream will eventually replace Office 365 Video for business customers of that service, although there will be no changes to Office 365 Video during the Stream preview period.

Sign up for the preview of Microsoft Stream

John Callaham