Attack of the .tvs!

It seems the .tv top-level domain is coming into its own as a designator of online video. We’ve spoken to a number of video startups and projects recently taking shelter in its wider availability and greater descriptiveness as compared to .com or — horrors — .net.

Here are three similar efforts you might want to check out: me.tv, Cozmo.tv, and Tilzy.tv. This crop addresses viewers, rather than creators, aimed at improving the process of finding and collecting online video.

First up we have Santa Monica-based Demand Media, which with its me.tv project has signed up to be VeriSign’s retail partner in selling 70,000 .tv domains. The domains come along with hosted tools to build “your own personal video network,” Demand Media CEO Richard Rosenblatt told us last week. Rosenblatt, former chairman of MySpace who has raised $220 million for his new venture, sees me.tv as a verticalization of personal media, away from hubs. “You want to build your brand; you don’t want to build a social network’s brand,” he says.

NBC late-night TV host Carson Daly, who is collaborating on the me.tv project, added, “You’re playing programmer. Here you are, Jeff Zucker in your little world now.”

The sites are pretty basic, with a “grab this” bookmarklet to bring in clips from approved video hosts. At $25 per year it’s a question of whether you want to pay to have your own vanity plate of a URL rather than use similar tools hosted for free on a site like YouTube or vod:pod, along with a community to support them. For now .com is still king, but this is an interesting way to drum up interest in .tv.

CozmoTV wants to be “a guide meshed with a TV syndication network,” said Alex Rowland, president and CEO of San Francisco-based Cozmo Media, in an interview this week. The site provides tools for users to build players (similar to those provided by SplashCast) to subscribe to RSS feeds, search terms, and/or personalized recommendations.

Rowland has ambitions that extend beyond the .tv homepage. “People going to Cozmo.tv should ultimately be 5 percent of our traffic,” he said. “We hope to make the widget a standalone application.” The idea is to get bloggers to embed Cozmo.tv in permanent positions on their sites. Rowland said he is on the way to raising more than $1 million in funding, though it has not yet closed.

Last up, Tilzy.tv is taking an curated approach to video discovery, a la Network2.tv. “We offer editorial overviews and preview clips of shows/channels/sites/vlogs with original, amassed content that have appeal for a niche or broad audience,” writes co-founder Josh Cohen via email.

The site is less than a month old, but already has a fair amount of content. Unfortunately I ham having trouble loading it today, so I can’t give you links to example pieces. Let us know if you have any pointers in the comments.

All three of these are a long way away from doing what they do well; they are simply rough drafts, freshly arrived on the web. But here’s my dream. I’d like to see a web-based player where I can find content recommendations — algorithmic, editorial, and from friends — as well as episodic content — all my favorite free web shows and the ones I pay for on iTunes too — in one place, sortable by date and by show.

All I have to do is log in, and everything I might want to watch is ready to go. And sure, it can be hosted at a .tv domain. Or available through a desktop app. Takers?