Video Upload Sites Provide a Global Audience for Your Creativity

Video upload sites such as YouTube and Google video are wildly popular online, and allow anyone to express themselves through the medium of film, and share their creations with a global audience.

You hear a lot of talk these days about the Internet emerging with conventional television, and even though this blending of the two technologies may take years to come about, you can already see the Internet becoming more of a vehicle for video delivery every day.

For example, the popular DVD subscription site, Netflix.com has recently added a feature where subscribers can watch thousands of different movies online, without waiting for a DVD to arrive in their mailbox.  Other online video sites are introducing similar services, but by far the most popular video sites online these days are the so-called social networking video upload sites.

YouTube is undoubtedly the best known and most frequented on the social video sites, but there are many others competing for their share of the market.  Yahoo video is a good example, with millions of online videos from both major film and television studios, as well as home producers.  Google video is another big one, and because Google has recently purchased YouTube, they now control more online video resources than any other single company.

Uploading videos to sites like these is normally a straightforward affair.  The user is first required to set up a free account, and then an upload page will guide them through the process of uploading their video to the site.  Video upload sites like YouTube also offer a subscription format, to allow surfers to "subscribe" to your videos.  Subscribers will receive an e-mail alert every time you post a new video on your YouTube "channel."

YouTube's site has really set the standard for sharing videos online, and their site is the very definition of simplicity.  For example, the steps involved in uploading a video are kept to a bare minimum in order to make the procedure as easy as possible for the end-user.

Yahoo videos, on the other hand, has a slightly more complex upload procedure, requiring the user to fill out a variety of online forms, and go through several steps to upload a video.  Yahoo also uses a proprietary format to display videos on their site, which can cause your uploaded video to look slightly different online than it did playing back on your computer. 

Still, the quality of Yahoo videos is very acceptable, especially when you consider that videos uploaded to the site are "downgraded" slightly to ensure they will play with a minimum of loading time, even for users with slower Internet connections.

Google video also has a fairly complicated procedure to upload videos.  But after Google's recent purchase of YouTube, the company has simplified its procedure, and appears to be attempting to integrate YouTube with Google videos to create one "super" video upload site.  The end result of this merger creates an enormous worldwide audience for any would-be filmmaker or video guru.

With technology improving all the time, video upload sites will likely continue to get easier to use, creating a perfect stage on which to showcase your creativity, thoughts, talent and personality.