Move Over, YouTube, Here Come Your Competitors

Oct. 2, 2007 — -- YouTube may be the undisputed champion of video on the Web — the company controls about 60 percent of the market, according to Hitwise — but the video-sharing site isn't the only game in town.

In fact, about 1,000 sites are vying for consumer attention, using technology such as high-definition video and content, including full-length films and TV episodes, to set themselves apart from the world's most popular video site.

All that competition may be a bit confusing when you're looking for a particular video clip or even when you just want to find something to watch. But the broad diversity of Internet video sites ensures that there is always something on no matter what your taste or interests.

Internet video sites fall into three broad categories: search sites that filter and find video content across the Web, aggregators that collect video and make it available from a central site and channels or networks that promote video content according to subject matter.

This online video blogging channel makes it very easy for anyone — even people with little technical know-how — to broadcast live video on the Internet. Each BlogTV user has his or her own page where live broadcasts are archived and where friends and fans can subscribe to updates when new segments are added. BlogTV was popularized in Israel and Canada and came stateside in May. Each country's site has around 60,000 unique visits per day, according to a company spokesman.

Video blogging, or vlogging, is gaining momentum across the Internet, and BlogTV has the right combination of ease of use and powerful features to make it a contender in this quickly emerging part of the Internet video market.

ClipBlast! is a search application and Web portal to help you find and navigate Internet video no matter where it is posted. The site has indexed video from more than 4,000 content providers ranging from independent video bloggers to top-tier media outlets, and claims to be the largest video search index on the Web.