Written by Chris Albrecht
Posted Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 3:51 PM PT

 

Open Thread: Which Video Site Do You Use?

YouTube, Vimeo, Viddyou, Revver, Viddler — which one is your video-sharing site of choice? It’s a question that sprang to mind after I wrote about Matthew Harding’s global dancing video earlier this month. On Harding’s blog, he posted his first two videos using YouTube, but for the third, he used Vimeo. Why the switch?

I emailed him to find out why and here’s what he wrote back:

“I put the video on Vimeo as well as YouTube because of the much higher quality level. YouTube was essential for getting the video seen by a wide audience, but Vimeo was a great alternative for those who cared enough to see a crisper image. Using both, I was able to satisfy the demands of millions of viewers while also offering something special for users of sites like Digg and Fark, who went straight to the superior Vimeo version.”

His reasoning makes sense (we posted the Vimeo version because it looked better). If you have an online show, you probably upload to any and all sites (though YouTube is your best distribution bet), but which one do you go with for everyday sharing?

Based on anecdotal evidence, the options for video sharing seem to break down according to underlying motivation in the following manner:

  • Massive audience: YouTube
  • Quality: Vimeo
  • Money: Revver
  • Family and friends mostly: Viddyou

Sure, this is oversimplified, but I’m curious to hear what you think. Why Viddler over Dailymotion, or Vimeo over Metacafe? Which video-sharing site did you pick and why? Leave a comment and let us know.

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Comments & Trackbacks

  1. Full disclosure: I am employed by MySpace

    +70million users, viral tools etc…MySpace/MySpaceTV = Community / sharing – plus (soon) even greater ability for content creators to target through the self-serve platform for content creators = exciting times/greater chance to build large audiences.

    http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/04/myspace-to-announce-self-serve-advertising-network/

    http://www.ianschafer.com/2008/04/20/deeper-thoughts-on-the-myspace-self-serve-platform/

    Paul Armstrong on July 15th, 2008 at 4:38 pm - Permalink

  2. I use http://www.Bands.TV

    Sanchay Kumar on July 15th, 2008 at 4:55 pm - Permalink

  3. At For Your Imagination our top video distribution sites are Blip, Dailymotion, Revver, Viddler, Yahoo and YouTube. They are all TubeMogul networks which is critical in managing the time to distribute and measure performance when you are running a bunch of video networks likes The Green House and DadLabs, and we get the best response (views, comments, ratings) from these networks on average. Some videos work better on different networks within that group but that is our top group. MySpace, Metacafe and others round out the secondary group.

    Paul Kontonis on July 15th, 2008 at 4:56 pm - Permalink

  4. ooyala.com gets all my vids

    controlled syndication in HD is where it’s at.

    McRib on July 15th, 2008 at 5:16 pm - Permalink

  5. I use Veoh because they let me upload my huge files and they look good when they play. If you produce more professional stuff like I do, Veoh is way better than youtube when it comes to quality.

    Jeff M on July 15th, 2008 at 5:27 pm - Permalink

  6. ViddYou does HD as well. It was probably one of the first that started offering HD video on the web.

    Funny how no one knows that.

    Jasmeet on July 15th, 2008 at 5:47 pm - Permalink

  7. I use ViddYou.com. For only $30 a year I get tons of file upload capabilities in countless formats (including full 1080p).

    Plus the creators of the site are totally accessible and involved daily in the community. Shoot them an message and get a response within hours usually. You can’t find that kind of help anywhere else.

    Steven Haddox on July 15th, 2008 at 5:57 pm - Permalink

  8. Viddyou here!

    Great community, simple uploading & helpful creators too!

    iTinGraphix on July 15th, 2008 at 6:41 pm - Permalink

  9. Why is there no website out there that supports 720p format videos and still giving you the monetization of a website like Revver?

    Why is there no Revver + Viddyou? :( I want my Reddyou

    Tyler on July 15th, 2008 at 7:16 pm - Permalink

  10. YouTube.

    This ain’t cinema. Quality doesn’t matter for most online video viewers. Large auds and widely adopted, embeddable players do. Web 2.0 has nothing to do w/ quality and everything to do w/ first-mover status and openness. I know its cool to hate the top dog, but YouTube has kept innovating and I’m confident that they’ll remain relatively user-friendly (subtle advertising like Google’s AdSense) while other sites get bogged down w/ more preroll ads and other ham-fisted ways to pay the bills and promote their sites.

    These other sites listed are the equivalent of DAT – for geeks only. I know YOU care about resolution, but where the evidence that anyone else cares about it?

    goshdurnit on July 15th, 2008 at 7:33 pm - Permalink

  11. Quality definitely matters as home computers get bigger and better. I like a clean image – especially if the video is shot on high quality formats. Vimeo is the one I like now. My videos are going to start going there.

    MattL on July 15th, 2008 at 8:23 pm - Permalink

  12. I’ve got accounts on most of the video sites but prefer to share my videos with http://Viddyou.com. I’m not a video blogger like many of the users but it works well for all application. quality does matter to me and they have far the best player on very fast servers. The interface is simple and works. Highly recommended.

    Brian on July 15th, 2008 at 8:24 pm - Permalink

  13. Viddyou.

    I use it mostly to blog and just share with my closest of friends. There aren’t any creepers (that I know of anyway) and no one’s really rude or annoying on it. As for YouTube, I just mainly watch some random things, but rarely will post.

    speeedraissa on July 15th, 2008 at 9:26 pm - Permalink

  14. For videos, I have only used Viddyou. I never liked YouTube because the user community is horrible. Almost every video uploaded has a ton of negative feedback on it making fun of the content creator. Either that, or spam ads. I refer to it as the MySpace of Video. Just a horrible site all around. I stumbled upon Viddyou about a year ago and loved the quality and just stuck with it. As stated above, I had a few questions about the site, so I emailed Aaron, one of the owners of the site. I expected a few days to pass before I got a reply and in about an hour I had a reply. Over the last year, I have helped Aaron and Ryan with the site as best as I can and I have to say that I probably won’t use any other site as my main site for content upload. In the future, I might upload some things to other sites like Vimeo, but I can almost guarantee that I will never use YouTube for anything.

    • Dustin
    Dustin Mathisen on July 15th, 2008 at 9:30 pm - Permalink

  15. Viddyou is the only way to go for personal video posts. No creepers. Excellent options and privacy settings. Great support from the creators – they’re very friendly and helpful.

    laimoi1016 on July 15th, 2008 at 9:41 pm - Permalink

  16. I prefer using blip.tv for some of these reasons.

    Amit Agarwal on July 16th, 2008 at 12:23 am - Permalink

  17. @Amit – Nice write up on blip.tv. ONe other reason I use blip.tv is for the people. They provide great support, and over time I’ve become friends with them.

    One thing you mention in your post is that blip.tv gives you access to the original upload format. So if you upload a .mov file you can include that in your blog as an RSS 2.0 media enclosure.

    I like Vimeo too. I just embedded the Where the Hell is Matt (2008) on my blog as a test.

    http://offonatangent.blogspot.com/2008/07/where-hell-is-matt-2008.html

    This embedded video is not in HD quality. I think it looks really good though.

    In order to watch the HD version of ‘Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)’ you need to visit Vimeo.

    Steve Garfield on July 16th, 2008 at 4:13 am - Permalink

  18. I want my video to shine, I use Vimeo. I also prefer the control I have on my profile page. The ability to add my LinkedIn url for further networking capabilities is a plus and the page just looks cleaner. Also Vimeo’s app for Facebook is simple & attractive.

    DCSmitty on July 16th, 2008 at 7:22 am - Permalink

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    CedflegreEKed on October 24th, 2008 at 4:17 pm - Permalink

  20. I have a flash site
    i’m looking for the script who makes google adsense on flash.
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    HSCharles on November 14th, 2008 at 5:18 am - Permalink

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    polipolaserka on January 3rd, 2009 at 2:22 pm - Permalink

  22. Привет всем!!
    Не особо люблю общаться на форумах, но вопрос важный, никто помочь не может.
    Вообщем, собрался покупать iPhone 3G, но знакомый сказал, что он с билайном косячно работает.. это правда?? слабо верится, а возможность проверить нет.
    буду признателен за ответ.

    Elurorierge on April 4th, 2009 at 1:40 am - Permalink

  23. hi,

    i was wondering where can i watch or download full metal alchemist the 2nd episode 11 been searching for it…
    no of the links are working….

    Almomymenue on June 15th, 2009 at 11:51 pm - Permalink

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