When most people think ?video,? they think YouTube. But, the truth is that there are a lot of other video sharing sites on the web, and you might be surprised by what they have to offer.
Flickr
This one surprised us too. Flickr branded itself as an image-sharing site early on , and no one really paid attention to what happened as the site evolved. OK, some people did pay attention. What they noticed is that flickr has evolved quite a bit since its launch in 2004.
Today, its ?explore video? option lets you upload short videos to the site so that you can share them with family, friends, even strangers. Most of the uploads on the site are of an extremely personal nature, but there are some amateur videos up there that look like newscasts.
In any case, the benefit of using Flickr is that it sort of flies under the radar. Most people still don?t know that Flickr does video, it?s a Yahoo property, and has all of the security and financial backing of its parent company.
Dailymotion
Dailymotion is the second-largest video sharing site on the web. If you haven?t heard about it before, that should tell you something. YouTube has amazing marketing – to the extent that it tends to crowd out the competition. Yet, people still seem to find this site and they love it. Over 116 million unique visitors can?t be wrong.
Dailymotion?s strength lies in both its integration with Facebook and other social media sites as well as its unique on-site features like the video contest. Users who upload videos to the site can enter to win $1,000, $500, or a feature on the homepage.
Videojug
Videojug differs from most video sharing sites in that it is a ?how-to? driven site. All of its videos are geared towards some type of self-improvement or ?how to?-technical achievement. While many of its videos are produced internally, there are amateur videos that are screened by editors – making this one of the more valuable video sites out there. Why? Because an editorially-vetted video means it is inherently more trustworthy than an amateur video with no editing or meritorious approval.
So, if you want to upload a video about weightlifting, for example, you must prepare the video and then submit it for review. It must pass through an editorial screening. The editors may make suggestions for edits, or they may reject the entire video (that would be disappointing).
If they approve it, it will be posted to the site. If they reject it, obviously you?ll have to go back to the drawing board and start over.
Vimeo
Vimeo is a video site similar to YouTube, but it caters to a more professional crowd. Not all of the channels and users on the site are businesses. Some of people here are scientists. Others are students. Some are artists.
However, the overarching theme here tends to lean more towards professionalism within any given niche. The strengths of Vimeo include its stunning HD quality and the liberal downloading policies. Unlike YouTube, Vimeo gives users control over the downloads.
So, if you wanted to download a video from the site, all you need is permission from the video?s creator – that?s it. Assuming you get that, you can use a program like YTD to download and convert the video into a format playable on your computer or mobile device – go here to learn more about how to do that. Always remember to respect IP when using downloaded content.
WatchKnow
WatchKnow is focused on educational videos in a structured format. Currently, there are about 50,000 videos uploaded to the site, separated into 5,000 categories. You can watch the videos without any registration.
The site is managed by a non-profit called Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi. While users do not contribute directly to the site, the organization pulls from other sites you can contribute to, like Google video, Vimeo, and Slideshare.
This site is probably best-used for internal communication and education or client education of a particular topic. So, for example, if you wanted to be able to teach your employees about copyright laws, and rules for sharing content at the workplace, you could use WatchKnow?s video on copyright laws pulled from YouTube.
Not all videos here are traditional ?classroom?-style videos. Some of them use music videos in a didactic format or visual illustrations to demonstrate a particular point.
It?s definitely unconventional, but it does concentrate information from around the web so that you don?t have to go hunting for it.
Kimberly Coronado is an online video whiz. She often blogs about her discoveries and thoughts on video platforms for uploading, sharing, and finding the best videos online today.
