YouTube is the most popular internet televsionor video distribution site on the Internet and currently ranks number16 on Alexa for most visited websites. YouTube offers anyone with aninternet connection the ability to upload video clips and share themwith friends, family, and the world, all for free. Users are invited toleave comments, pick favorites, send message to each other and watchvideos sorted into subjects or channels. Videos are served with AdobeFlash are viewable on almost any modern computer.Fast video approval time, they basicallyapprove anything, even copyrighted material (copyrighted material mayeventually get pulled or deleted if they catch you). YouTube receiveslots of visitors so your videos have the potential to get viewed a TONof times, especially if your video makes it on one of the top viewed,or most discussed video lists for the week, month, or for all time.Each content producer gets their own profile page and unique channelwhere users can subscribe to your content and be alerted whenever youupload a new video.Limited file size of 100 Megs and a limitedvideo length of 10 minutes. For longer lengths you have to apply for adirector’s account and wait for approval. You video is served in AdobeFlash, so the resolution is downgraded. Tons of garbage content soyour video may get “lost” in a sea of people lip singing and boot shakevideos. Content creators receive no compensation and users can’tdownload your video to their computer.There are lots of videos to watch. Being the 16thmost popular site on the internet, you get the largest total amount ofvideos and video creators. This site is even more popular then Google video. Users can embed videos in their regular blogs, myspace, or ontheir personal websites. You can subscribe to your favorite contentproducers and receive notifications whenever they post anything new.They have the most substantial set of video lists I’ve seen on anyvideo distribution site.
You can view videos sorted by most recent,most viewed, top rated, most discussed, top favorites, most linked,recently featured, worst rated, by category, by groupsand by channel (every user has their own channel). Each one of thoselists can further be divided by date range, giving you lots ofdifferent ways to sort through the vast amount of clips there.Youtube is a fun site and everyone shouldvisit it at least once. Don’t expect it to replace your normal viewingpatterns anytime soon and be prepared for juvenile comments, and lotsof bad karaoke videos, but there are some interesting clips there andviewing amateur content is surprising addicting. Don’t think YouTubeis the end all of Internet tevision though, I would highly recommendyou also check out their major competitors (Google Video, Veoh, YahooVideo, and Addicting Clips just to name a few) All thecommunity features could potentially be very cool and useful, butcurrently I don’t think most users will want to take advantage of them,considering the quality of most of the video content. How manypeople’s vblogs of them singing and dancing do you actually want tosubscribe to? This will almost certainly change as the internet televsion revolution continues.Ifyou are promoting your own videos make sure to setup an account, butdon’t put all your eggs in this basket either, make sure you post yourvideo other places too. YouTube is the most popular, but there are lotof major players in the Internet Television and Video Distribution Market.