Ya-hoo-boy, this is not a good time

The search site named for the whooping sound of fun and excitement is having not much of one and way too much of the other again.

The company confirmed via blog yesterday that Yahoo Live, the video-streaming social site that's been in the works for most of the year, will be shut down early next month. The service didn't get much attention after its initial rollout in February, though its group video chat feature was well-liked by many. In an interesting twist, the service will be commemorated tomorrow (Wednesday) in the service's Town Hall area.

If there's any cheer here, it's in the only-mostly-dead sense: The long-discussed deal between Google and Yahoo, which has been caught in the headlights of a Dept. of Justice investigation for some time, may still have some life left in it.

Over the weekend, a new proposal was floated that might assuage DoJ antitrust concerns while giving Yahoo at least some of the scraps of the original deal -- a two-year deal instead of ten, an opt-out right for Google advertisers who want no part of the purple, and a 25% Yahoo revenue cap where once there was none.

The deal substantially undercuts Yahoo's potential profits, of course; it also hamstrings the company's ability to turn the search process over to Google, freeing them up to concentrate on other things. Some commenters noted, however, that even a watered-down two-year deal buys all parties a bit of time (perhaps to see how the DoJ climate changes?) -- and would mean two more years of Microsoft fuming and skulking along the search sidelines.

In other forward-thinking, possibly-Microsoft-annoying news, former MSN executive producer and general manager Jeff Dossett is, as was previously rumored, on his way to Yahoo as Senior VP, US Audience. He replaces Scott Moore, who moves on to the proverbial Other Opportunities. Dossett previously ran MSN Carpoint, which became MSN Autos.