Surfing the Web’s Video Wave

By Bennett Gordon Utne.Com
Published on February 1, 2007

Hold on to your productivity and prepare to procrastinate. The
World Wide Web is hosting an endless line-up of
sometimes-fascinating, sometimes-inane videos that are available
for your viewing pleasure, free of charge. Just as the remote
control allowed people to flip through hundreds of channels without
having to leave the couch, a number of new sites are helping
viewers sift through the static (and avoid wasting hours digging
for gold on YouTube). This is not an exhaustive list of online
video filtering sites, but it should be enough to get you
watching.

Stumble Video
Much like MySpace or Facebook,
StumbleUpon is a social networking site where
people can create a profile, blog, and make ‘friends.’ What makes
this site different is that visitors, even without a profile, can
view a plethora of videos suggested by the StumbleUpon community.
Just click on the ‘stumble’ button to watch a segment. If you don’t
like it, stumble again. Viewers can voice their opinions on the
videos with a ‘thumbs up’ or a ‘thumbs down’ — preferences that
StumbleUpon says it takes note of in preparing its video
rosters.

Super Deluxe
This comedy-centric website is like YouTube for the foul mouthed.
Videos featured include those from Fark TV — a video series from
the popular news filtering site Fark.com — which lampoon real headlines. Other
highlights of the site include Chelsea Peretti’s ‘Making Friends,’
a video that pokes fun at the ‘friendly’ culture of New York
City.

World Wide Internet TeleVision
In what may be the ultimate World Wide Web watching experience,
wwiTV showcases
programs from across the globe. According to Louis Goddard of the
internet magazine Flak, wwiTV is ‘a treasure trove of
bizarre entertainment.’ Godard points viewers to such varied
programming as BBC Parliament (‘essentially the British equivalent
of C-SPAN’) to the EMS Police Channel (which he describes as
‘clearly aimed to fulfill the off-duty American police officer —
at least?the ones that watch a lot of cable and/or internet TV’).
With free streaming videos, viewers can get a look at broadcasts
from Albania to Zimbabwe, all from the comfort of their own
homes.

Democracy
Like QuickTime with a conscience,
Democracy is a free, downloadable media player
designed by the nonprofit
Participatory Culture Foundation. Like many
media players (e.g. QuickTime, iTunes), Democracy plays most types
of music and video files. You can also subscribe to different
internet TV shows and podcasts. What makes this player unique is
that it was created with a philanthropic mission — to promote
greater access to open-source, free information.

Go there >>
Stumble
Video

Go there, too >>
Super
Deluxe

And there >>
World Wide Internet
TeleVision

And there >>
Democracy

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