5 Hot video sites you didn’t know

Whenever someone mentions “online video”, most people think about YouTube immediately (that’s the power of brand positioning at work). But there is an entire universe out there in the wild web just begging to be discovered. Here are 5 relatively unknown, but still very hot, Web 2.0 video sites.

Take the time to visit them and explore their potential. And if you happen to know another cool video website that readers of this blog should know about about, please post about it in the comments. It will be much appreciated.

1) 5min
This is a place to find short video solutions for any practical question and a forum for people wanting to share their knowledge. 5min aims is to create the first communal Life Videopedia allowing users from all over the globe to contribute their knowledge by sharing visual guides covering variety of subjects.

Find the best in how to videos, do it yourself ideas and useful tutorials. 5min is your one-stop shop for instructional videos and DIY projects.

2) Animoto
The minute I saw it, Animoto blew my mind. It is truly the next generation of photo slide-shows for the web. All you need to do is upload your photos or tell their system where to grab them from (your flickr account, picasa, etc). Then select of of their many music backgrounds or upload an mp3 file from your computer, click a button and boom… out comes an incredibly well produced video.

What really sets Animoto apart from any other slide-show building tools is the fact that all animations were created by real tv and film producers - and this really shows in the results. Go ahead and give it a try… I’m sure you’ll be gladly surprised.

3) BlinkX
Unknown to many, Blinkx is the world’s largest and most advanced video search engine. They have indexed over 18 million hours of searchable video and includes video from virtually all major broadcasting companies. According to their founder (Suranga Chandratillake), the goal of BlinkX is to become the “remote control for the video web” and position their site and the premier destination for online TV.

According to BlinkX: “Unlike other multimedia search engines that attempt to re-purpose technology built for the Text Web, blinkx uses a unique combination of patented conceptual search, speech recognition and video analysis software to efficiently, automatically and accurately find and qualify online video.”

4) WeDigTV
Only a few have actually done it, but most of us only wonder what it would be like (or how well we’d actually do) in one of those TV shows with contests and trivia. Well, this is your chance to experience it in the comfort of your own computer. WeDigTV is a truly revolutionary service that let’s you be the star of the most popular TV shows from around the world - definitely worth checking out.

5) Vidipedia
By now, pretty much everyone in the world has heard of WikiPedia… but did you know there’s also a Vidipedia available? Vidipedia is the Free Video Encyclopedia that anyone can edit. It is the first wiki on the internet to feature unlimited, streaming video as a media option. Users can edit any page or video they like, creating an organized archive of digital media. If this one gets popular, it will become a GREAT resource.

· Topic: Audio & Video  · Tags: content sharing, slide-show, video, web 2.0