We now live in a world where video on the web is as common as the delivery of the daily newspaper used to be. Many people spend a little time during their day, others a lot more, looking at different online videos for enjoyment, education or global information. As video producers we want to get our message out and our story told to anyone and everyone.  That’s why it’s important that we look into some of the major online video websites and discover their features and any drawbacks.

Online video publishers are looking for many different options when choosing a distribution website: number of potential viewers, video quality, searchability, community interaction, and monetization. I decided to compare some of the most popular and unique online video websites you can publish to, such as YouTube, MySpace, Yahoo, Viddler, and Revver to get a clearer “picture” of what to expect.

When it comes to viewers, YouTube attracted the most viewers with 81.1 million unique viewers watching 3.25 billion videos in February of 2008. Each viewer spent an average of 109 minutes of viewing. Fox Interactive, which includes MySpaceTV, attracted 55.7 million unique viewers who watched 586 million videos, averaging 10.9 minutes of viewing each. The third most popular site was Yahoo, which attracted 37 million unique viewers who watched 315 million videos while averaging 18.0 minutes of viewing each. The viewing percentages drop off enough not to reflect the viewership of sites like Viddler and Revver, which are newer to the online video market.

Quality! We all put time and effort into creating great video and want to see the final version reflect the amount of detail that we put into it. When uploading to these online video websites, it’s important to keep in mind the clarity, color and smoothness each site will provide you. Although YouTube makes it fairly simple to upload, it can be challenging to make sure your high-quality original still looks good once they reencode it. Videos on YouTube can be a bit blurry, as if YouTube is reencoding them at a higher compression rate. Another issue I’ve noticed is that the blacks get crushed, which makes the video quite dark, so be aware of your settings. It’s not impossible to get decent quality video on YouTube, but it’s not simple either, and I hope it’s something they are working to improve upon.

MySpaceTV and Yahoo Video seem to provide a similar experience, but many of the videos are from professional production houses, which makes them look pretty good. The downside is you’re limited to the content in their libraries. However, Yahoo Video does offer 16:9 aspect ratios. Good for the growing production format. As for Revver, I’ve been told that you can custom-set your aspect ratio to your liking, but I could not find examples to examine online. Viddler offers 4:3 aspect ratios as well. When it’s all said and done we come back to the age old saying, “Garbage in, garbage out”. Check your encoding settings. Shoot appropriately.

Site community. Most all of these online video sites include a rating system with the ability to share and space for making comments. I’m most familiar with YouTube’s layout and use it as a comparison point for other sites. On YouTube you can see how many viewers there are immediately, notice the rating of the video, (1-5 stars, although not enough people use the rating system), and just below this the viewer has the ability to share the video and add it to their favorite videos or playlist. Right below all this information is the ability to comment and discuss. Video comments are possible. It’s a relatively good layout for engaging other viewers and getting feedback on your content.

On MySpaceTV the viewer needs to look in two different places to find pertinent information about the popularity of the clip. On the right side it lists the number of viewers and below the video viewers can find the rating system, a thumbs up / down approach. It’s an interesting method but doesn’t allow viewers to easily know just how good or bad the video is. It’s ability to share begins with MySpace and only extends to blogs. I understand MySpace wants all the viewers but it very much limits the ability to share your content. The commenting section on MySpace adds user’s pictures or their icons to posted comment. This gives more personalize feel to the comments but also limits the number of comments visible on one page. Yahoo Video focuses more on providing content verses having community interaction. Most of the page is covered with other related videos or videos that are hot today. There isn’t a rating system in place and the comments section is very primitive.

Viddler does not offer a rating system but what they do offer  makes this site very interesting. Viddler has the ability to make comments on the video timeline. These comments appear while the video is playing, adding another dimension to community comments. Revver has your basic setup with nothing overly outstanding: a rating system, email a clip, add it to your FaceBook page, and comment on it. One great option that Revver and Viddler do add is the ability to download the clip. Good news for the viewer but possibly bad for creators.

Monetization. YouTube now offers a partnership where you can share in the revenue your uploaded content makes. The drawback for aspiring producers is that you need to have several thousand viewers each month to qualify for the partnership. Great if you can get there. MySpaceTV and Yahoo Video do not have a monetization model at this time. Viddler has lower-third advertising but you as the content producer do not share in the revenue. Revver is new and different. On Revver they will place adds on your video (lower thirds) and will split the revenue generated with you 50/50. It’s a great idea to get content producers to place their videos online with them. 

There are so many new and interesting online video website emerging all the time, but for content producers like DotLot, going to YouTube is a must as the viewers are already there. The ability to share in multiple ways exist, and if you become a partner with Google / YouTube you’ll be able to share in the advertising rewards. It’s great that new sites are appearing because it brings competition and advances in online video. There is much more to come and look forward to.