WebProNews

Search engine giant Yahoo! expands its horizon with an online video contest to find the next great internet star.

Can you sing the alphabet backwards while hula-hooping and painting a replica of Vincent van Gogh's "Starry Night"? If you so, you can put your random talents to good use with a talent contest being hosted by Yahoo!.

Yahoo! is hosting an interesting new contest that showcases the talents of the Internet search engine's users. The Yahoo! Talent Show is a "nationwide search to find the next great Internet celebrity", according to Yahoo! representatives.

To enter the contest Yahoo! users must simply upload their original videos using any of the following formats: ASF, AVI, MOV, MPEG, QT, or WMV.

But do not attempt to dance to Kelis's "Milkshake" or impersonate a character from your favorite movie; all material that is submitted must be completely original and contained nothing that has been copyrighted.

Currently some of the most popular categories for user videos are acting, dancing, crazy, spoof, scary, silly, and rock.

The purpose of the talent contest is for judges to find the next great American Internet star and contestants will be judged accordingly on web charisma, talent, and creativity, say representatives.

Entrants to the contest must be entertaining and relatable to the online audience, as Yahoo! is looking for a genuinely talented person to have his or her own Internet show.

If you think you are a truly talented and entertaining person, Yahoo! allows you to submit up to 50 videos and say that the more videos you post, the better chance you will have of winning the cash prize of $50, 000 and a deal to star in or produce your own show on Yahoo!.

Even if you do not wish to enter the contest yourself, you can still play an important role in the final decision of the judges by visiting the site and commenting on your favorite videos.

The last day for video submission is November 27th and the five finalists will be announced on December 4th. With the announcement of the five finalists comes a series of creative challenges to be completed in both the finalist's homes as well as the Yahoo! New York City office.

America must then vote December 12-13 to crown the grand prize winner of the talent show and Yahoo! will announce their identity on December 14th.

Think you have what it takes to be the next big Yahoo! star? Prove it to the rest of the world by submitting your videos.

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit | Furl

Autmn Davis is a staff writer for WebProNews covering ebusiness and technology.