Videos have become one of the hottest commodities on the Web, garnering hundreds of millions of Web searches every single day all over the world.
Using Videos for Content marketing is becoming big business. People love to watch and share videos they find remarkable – fun, educative or controversial. While people generally share videos on Blogs, Facebook and Twitter. Social media websites not only allows you to share your thoughts, it also permits everyone to be their own online TV station.
For people who want to contribute to the social media space and are weary of the endless hours of typing blog posts, balancing between social networking sites, guest blogging and posting on your site, video blogging has become the real deal. Video blogs (also called vlog or v-logs) are websites or online platforms dedicated to using video as its primary source of content. Most of these also use video sharing sites such as YouTube, Hulu, Daily motion, Iroko TV and Vimeo to host or store its video content.
Amazing isn't it?
I quite believe it’s an evolution that’s prone to add values in all facets of human endeavors. Hence, writing this article simply excites me to the core with recent introduction of Facebook into the online video platform.
The top video websites online as listed below offers a user-friendly experience with a wide variety of great multimedia content from which to choose from.
1. YouTube
YouTube, originally created in 2005 and bought by Google in 2006, it commands millions-strong audiences for video sharing and viewing site on the Web today. An extremely diverse set of multimedia content is available here: user-generated, TV clips, movie clips and movie trailers, video blogging, original Web series, and much more.
People all over the world use YouTube as a platform on which to share their lives. However, large corporations also take advantage of the incredibly large global audience available through YouTube to distribute their own multimedia content.
The site is extremely user-friendly, divided into categories ranging from Comedy to Sports, and is available for playback on multiple viewing platforms.
That’s what I call a total package! More like my home in my palms!
2. Facebook
Facebook takes its places as one of the most popular videos websites on the Web simply because of the size of its user base: over five hundred million people all over the world visit Facebook on a daily basis (many several times a day).
Facebook is largely the biggest rival and more serious in threatening YouTube to lure millions of people onto their platform. I guess it pays to be a video-hungry site like Facebook circling like sharks around top celebrities, (Hollywood, Nollywood, Bollywood, etc), top creators, hoping they will jump ship and experience a fresh feel of online video.
Of course, innovation(s) plays a big role in this aspect of the industry and there’s no harm trying to surmount other video platforms but a great deal of work and different features has to be put in place to attain and sustain the desired first position in such field.
Facebook's video feature works a bit differently that the rest of the video websites on this list. Viewing a video is possible in the following situations:
- You have liked the video's parent page
- You are part of the video poster's network
- You have been tagged in the video
- A video has been directly sent to you via internal Facebook messaging
- A video has been posted onto your Facebook wall
3. Vevo
Vevo, unlike many of the other video websites mentioned on this list, is strictly for music videos and music videos only. Launched in 2009, Vevo offers the highest quality music multimedia from such organizations as Sony, Universal, EMI, CBS, and Walt Disney Records. According to multiple measuring statistics, Vevo has been ranked as the number one music multimedia platform on the Web.
Finding the video you want to watch at Vevo is quite easy. Look for your favorite song, artist, or band simply by typing a query into the Vevo search bar function, check out the Featured videos on the Vevo home page, see what's on the What's Hot list, or take a look at the Featured Channels, showcasing "themed" videos in such categories as "Essential 80s".
4. Sahara TV
TV of Sahara Reporters, the online news portal that chronicles Nigeria’s political travails. SaharaTV features two different programmes – Dr. Damages and Time out with Adeola. While Dr. Damages creates pardies of people, personalities and events, Time out with Adeola is a magazine-styled programme that chronicles people, event and places.
5. Google Video
Google Video offers an easy to use, streamlined search interface (much like all the rest of Google's multiple properties online). Users can search for videos found on other video websites, such as YouTube, DailyMotion, and MetaCafe.
Literally millions of videos are available to watch at Google Video, indexed from a variety of sources all over the Web. Movie clips, entire movies, TV shows, and user-generated content can be found here using a variety of methods: keyword search, by length/duration, time of upload, source, etc.
6. Dailymotion
DailyMotion, launched in 2005 and based in France, is the second largest video website in the world according to various Web measurements.
Videos at DailyMotion can be found several different ways; via categories (also known as channels, offering everything from Animals to Travel), by checking out the Most Viewed, Trending, or What's Hot displays, browsing the Featured Users (official company presences on DailyMotion), or simply by typing in whatever you might be looking for into the DailyMotion search bar function.
7. Yahoo! Video
Yahoo Video, officially launched in 2006, is a video website offering branded channels, movie trailers and clips, and popular comedy skits. There are several ways to find content on Yahoo! Video:
- via the search function bar at the top of the website,
- clicking on the channels/categories ranging from Motherhood Moments to Sports Bloopers, and
- browsing the list of Most Popular videos at the moment.
Featured Yahoo! Video networks include the Discovery Channel, the White House, PetTube, JibJab, and Rooftop Comedy.
8. Iroko TV
Iroko is dubbed the king of African trees and this one is definitely king of online distribution portal for African movies. This website is owned by Iroko Partners and offers the world access to African and mostly Nigerian movies. Iroko TV is certainly blazing the trail and founded by Nigerian born Jason Njoku. Think of any genre of movie and you will find it there.
Nollywood Love was the Jason’s first love and was where Iroko TV found its roots. While this was hosted on YouTube, IrokoTV is in charge of its own content and hosting.
9. Microsoft Video Network
Microsoft is an extremely strong player in the video website market, with such familiar properties as Fox Sports, Bing Videos, MSNBC, and TODAY. All told, Microsoft's stellar array of multimedia offerings brings in hundreds of millions of users every month from all over the world.
10. Notjustok.com
When it comes to online music blogging and exclusive songs in Nigeria, Mola Ogundele takes the cake with his notjustok.com music blog. I mean, when you listen to some Nigerian mp3, you would hear his website address mentioned at different intervals, whether you listen to Nigerian music over the web or radio, you must definitely hear a voice pronounce the name of the website, which is actually pleasing to the ear.
NotJuskOk from NotJustOk.com, allows free music streaming and download straight from the NotJustOk.com website. NotJustOk is a local aggregator and independent promoter of Nigerian acts and songs.
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