Online Video Hosting

13Sep06

There are a several different websites providing services which allow you to host your video online for free. Some of these sites have different features which set them apart and they all seem to attract differnt types of video content. What follows is a brief summary of a few of the services available to help you make your decision if you’re thinking of posting video online.

Blip is where I have been hosting my video online most recently. The website is starting to become more popular and has attracted some serious members of the videoblogging community. They allow you to access your file in its original version and they also provide a flash conversion that you can embed directly into your blog. Another bonus is that Blip allows the creator to choose one of four creative commons licences to attribute to your conent, giving the them a little more control over how their content can be used in the future (it also allows you to post with no licence at all – all rights reserved). Blip also provides you with the ability convieniently cross post you uploaded content to your blog.

Cruxy is somewhat of an online marketplace for creators original digital media. The site allows the creator to upload their video, audio, or image to the site and make it available for sale at any desired price. Sales are made through paypal and Cruxy is very transarent regarding how much money goes to each party (the artist, cruxy, and paypal), providing a calculator indicating the profit off of each transaction. Content can also be sold with a Creative Commons License of your choice and the creator has the ability to include their own clauses indicating how the media can be used. What makes the site unique and unlike other simmilar marketplace sites such as iTunes, is that the media content is sold without any Digital Rights Manangement (DRM) protecting people from distributing the media themselves. They seem to be hoping the users will act in good faith, allowing users a way to support artists who are operating outside of the corporate system.

Google Video converts your content to flash for viewing on the web or to their own google video file (.gvp) for viewing in their downloadable Google Video Player. Because Google allows creators to charge a fee for downloading content, it has attracted the interest of television networks and other established media outlets who are making some of their programming available to download. Those uploading their content can choose to make it available for free or charge whatever the want in the Google Video Store.

Internet Archive is now the grand-daddy of free online video hosting. Grand in the sense that was a pioneer and still has an incredibly huge amount of video. This is where you can also access public domain material and uploaded material that has been given a creative commons licence. Ourmedia helped popularize video blogging through their partnership with Internet Archive, providing unlimited free hosting and helping bloggers through the step-by-step process. However, since people started to discuss video blogging using terms like “business models” and “speculation investment,” more and more hosting providers have entered game. Many of these newer sites offer flash video, a format which loads much faster and is more accessible as Flash plug-ins are commonly pre-installed in most internet browsers. As a result much of the videoblogging traffic has moved away from Internet Archive. However, they are still the pioneers and played a key role in popularizing the use of Creative Commons Licences.

MotionBox is a new video hosting site that uses Flash 9 and features a filmstrip below the player window that allows you to scroll through the video as it plays. One of the advantages of this format is that it gives the viewer the abilty to select portions of longer videos they would like to share, allowing the viewer to be somewhat of an editor. However, because it relies on Flash 9 for this feature, an update that still hasn’t been installed on every computer, there is smaller audience that has access to to this new application.

Lulu is a free video hosting and distribution service that also allows the chance for creators to make somewhat of an income while still dristributing their content for free. Anyone can upload and distribute their content for free, but creators can also become “stakeholders” by paying a monthly fee which goes in pool. At the end of each month, stakeholders are paid out that pool of money depending on their percentage of the total videos downloaded. It sounds somewhat socialist, yet in a sense pits creators in direct competition with eachother.

Revver is another video hosting service that allows users to the opportunity to make an income off of their freely distributed content. However, unlike Lulu, Rever doesn’t charge a monthly fee to its users. Rather, Revver embedds an advertisment at the end of each video watched. If the user watching the video clicks on the advertisment at the end of video, the creator is paid a small fee. While its placement at the end of the video is certainly makes the advertisment more palatable, the creator has no contorl over what kind imagery will be used or what type of product will be advertised.

YouTube has become one of the fastest growing and most popular of the major online video hosts. They have been critized for not adequately monitoring the content that is uploaded, resulting in the distribution of copywrited material. However, while several major media outlets have pursued YouTube, forcing the content to be removed from the site, others have allowed their copywrited material to remain on YouTube, perhaps understanding the free advertising that they are being given. YouTube has also taken on the form of an online social networking site, many of its users participating in online video conversations. Using webcams and little editing, many of the users participate in this unique form of asynchronous video conversation.

Of course, there are other sites. If you can’t find the right service from the options above, you can check out one of the following: Grouper, Daily Motion, Guba, iFilm, Multiply, Caught on Video, VeOH or Yahoo Video. Have fun.

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Filed under: Online Video, User-Created Media   |  11 Comments