ViddYou just launched their video blogging network today. According to Mefeedia, the majority of vlogging is taking place on people’s personal sites, which tend to be web shows like the late-great Ze Frank. The other, more personal, half is captured by social video sites. ViddYou is focusing on the latter category, enhancing and promoting the “Personal and Blog” section normally buried in social video sites like YouTube.
The site is based on a simple social network design, consisting of vlogs and communities. Vlogs keep track that users latest videos, friends, interests, and personal profile video. Communities bundle vloggers of similar interests together. Currently communities can only be created by the company, and are limited to the general, travel, music, and confessions.
The overall user experience is streamlined and straightforward. You can post videos to your vlog by recording them within the site’s widget on your webcam, or uploading them from a hand-held or mobile phone camera (via emailed MMS). You can even watch videos on your mobile phone if you have a 3GP video player installed. They’re currently limiting the videos to five minutes to discourage posting content illegally. Each video you upload can be rated, replied to (video or text), embedded, and accompanied by a set of Flickr photos placed below the recording.
We’ve seen a variety of other personal video services before: Vlip, Ustream, Stickam, Blip.tv, and the plethora of other social video sites. ViddYou focuses solely on vlogging instead of web shows; this helps differentiate it from these other services. Vlip consists of video comment threads (a bulletin board for video comments). Ustream and Stickam support live show streams. Blip.tv catalogs web shows, and other social video site tend to bury vlogs in a mountain of other videos.