YouTube does social video well

March 28, 2006

YouTube, launched in Feb 2005, seems to be one of the most popular social video sites on the web. It’s fast, has a nice clean interface and a nice selection of features:
* Flash video
* A description of the video (you’d be surprised how many sites don’t have this!)
* easily copied video URL and embedded player
* tags and ratings
* user info, friends, favortites, presence
* play lists
* trackback links with stats!

For example, for the video “Hope” (a moving anti-gang violence music video) shows:
Sites linking to this video:
» 83 clicks from http://www.webhere.com.br/video/
» 45 clicks from http://www.myspace.com/
» 17 clicks from http://www.myspace.com/strongyouth
» 14 clicks from http://www.friendster.com/user.php
» 7 clicks from http://www.offuhuge.com/v4/music-video-codes-debuts6

Even though YouTube does seem to be more well-known, I originally found it through TagWorld (which is now too slow to review). At the time amongst the less imaginative videos of girls dancing in front of the camera, I saw this fun home-grown music video “hey clip” hosted by YouTube. (Two young women lip-sync “Hey” by the Pixies.)

It’s nice to know the social video sites are being social with each other :)

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