Alternatives to YouTube

For those of you that are looking for alternatives to youtube for uploading videos of your kids, here are a few thoughts. Why look for alternatives? YouTube has two downsides for many parents: it doesn’t allow you to keep your videos private, and you when you upload a video to YouTube, you give them a license to do whatever they want with your video. OK, the chances of them featuring or making money off your child’s ballet lesson are pretty remote, but if these are concerns for you, consider these free options.

Vimeo: This service lets you keep videos private, so only people you invite can see them, but you still give them the rights to do whatever they want with your video. The quality is really high and we’ve found them very easy to use and embed in blogs.

Totspot If security/privacy is your priority, this is your best option. If you set your profile/page to “private” you don’t give anyone permission to do anything with your video. It is, however, a few more hoops to get started here, it’s not really meant to be used just for video, but rather, for a whole page on your child with blog/photos/etc.

Blip.tv I’ve used blip for a few years with good results. They make a big deal about you retaining all rights to your video. However, privacy features are only available with a pro account.

Google video Google (who now owns YouTube) retains the right to use your video for promotional purposes. It does have a new feature that allows you to keep your video, “unlisted” so it doesn’t come up in search results. One advantage of google video is that it’s set to work easily with blogger.

There are new options coming out all the time, as well as plenty of services such as 4 http://www.babysfirstsite.com that are geared towards kids. We’ll keep you updated as we test out others.