Top 10 Video Share Websites

The proliferation of video on the Web is due not just to an increase in professionally produced fare, but primarily because it's so cheap and easy for average idiots to shoot footage and spread it around. And much of the impetus for that activity has been Websites that make it cheap and easy to upload and share video for the world to see.

Everyone knows about YouTube, but in fact there are dozens of video sharing sites out there -- most of them free -- that offer features similar to, and in some instances superior to, YouTube's.

TopTen Reviews, which is sort of a Consumer Guide for techies, recently rated video sharing sites, offering comprehensive reviews of each and a useful side-by-side comparison chart. Here are the leaders of the pack:

YouTube, Metacafe, Break, Google, DailyMotion, Yahoo!, Revver, Vimeo, VidiLife, and Stickam.

Here's some of the criteria that their reviewers used:

Audience Features (e.g. search capabilities; screenshot previews; content description; viewer ratings system)

Producer Features (e.g. video creation tools; educational resources; public/private options)

Content (e.g. large library; aesthetic and legal regulations)

Ease of Use (e.g. intuitive organization and navigation; quick loading; minimal buffer delays)

Help/Support (e.g. FAQs; user guides & forums; customer service)

So which site was number one? No surprise here -- YouTube. It wasn't the first video sharing site, and its content is not always the greatest, but it's now synonymous with video itself, having garnered nearly a fifth of the world's Internet traffic. (Here's the TopTen review.)

TopTen reviewers especially liked YouTube's "functionality and community."

The real strength of YouTube is the members that interact, comment, and post videos for specific interests. It’s possible to find a video on YouTube for any interest, occupation, hobby or pastime...

Perhaps the most telling effect of YouTube’s video sharing formula is the fact that YouTube has gone from being the star to creating stars.... Now presidential candidates use YouTube as a way to give their debates and speeches a national audience, because YouTube has such a broad user base....

But is YouTube the best choice for videojournalists, who want their non-fiction stories, often on weighty topics, to stand out from the crowd? What has your experience been with video sharing sites? Which ones do you use... and why?

Comparing Video Sharing Sites

What's the best site for uploading and sharing your videos?

There are so many criteria that we've been constructing our own list of what to look for. Every videoplayer seems to have some advantages, such as ability to link to the video from (or embed on) other sites. But all have innumerable inadequacies and flaws.

Joel Williams, aka the Blog Tech Guy, has diligently devised his Ultimate Guide to Online Video Sharing Websites for no less than 48 video sharing sites, and 13 video editing sites, including:

AOL Uncut, Blip, Break, Brightcove, Buzdeo, Crackle, Cuts, Dabble, Daily Motion, Dave.tv, DivX Stage 6, eefoof(VuMe), Eyeka, Eyespot, Fliqz, FlixYa, Google Video, Gotuit, iFilm, JayCut, Jumpcut, Kewego, Kiwivid, LiveVideo, Lycos Mix, Metacafe, Mojiti, MotionBox, MyHeavy, MyNumo, MySpace, Nelsok, Ning, OneTrueMedia, Ovi (Twango), Revver, SevenLoad, Soapbox, Spymac, Sumo, Veoh, Viddler, Vidilife, Vidszoo,Vimeo, Vmix, VodPod, Vsocial, Wat, Webshots, WeShow, Yahoo Video, YouAreTV, YouTube, Yurth, Zeec and Ziddio.

Did you even realize there were that many?

On one Quality Comparison Page, using identical test footage, you can see for yourself the difference in Color, Vision, and Sound. However, this doesn't take into account other factors, such as whether that annoying "play" triangle icon appears in the middle of the screen when you pause, or whether you can manually fast-forward the slider.

In a separate 45-page PDF ebook, Williams rates and describes the ease and quality of creating an account, uploading video, and viewing video at each of these sites -- along with annotated pros and cons.

Additionally, Williams offers a handy chart, Online Video Comparison Matrix, which features an apples-to-apples comparison of more than a dozen useful criteria.

He notes that video editing sites are different from video sharing websites: "While sites like Photobucket (and now YouTube with Remixer) do both, these sites are designed for the editing of videos, (which) are normally loaded from other video sharing sites, and not uploaded to the site directly." Here's a sampling of those:

http://www.clesh.com/
http://www.crackle.com/
http://www.grouper.com/
http://www.cuts.com/
http://www.dabble.com/
http://www.fliqz.com/
http://www.forscene.net/
http://www.gotuit.com/
http://www.jumpcut.com/
http://mix.lycos.com/
http://www.mojiti.com/
http://www.motionbox.com/
http://www.stashspace.com/
http://www.webshots.com/

Bet you didn't realize there were so many video editing sites, either! Bravo to the Blog Tech Guy for his diligent research!

Tell us: What's your favorite video-sharing and/or video-editing Website, and why?