Jagannatha's blogging Hut

Once upon a time, how-to guides were all about numbered lists and
badly-drawn diagrams. Now those guides have gone multimedia, with a
slew of new sites offering video how-tos from the users themselves.
Here are 10 of the best.

1. VideoJug:
VideoJug mixes user generated clips with professionally made content.
Videos are accompanied by a text version, and you can download clips to
your iPod or PSP. This UK-based site is receiving a lot of hype from
the British press.

2. Sclipo
carries a remix of the YouTube tagline: “Broadcast your
skills”. The European startup provides how-to guides in English
and Spanish.

3. Sutree:
Sutree is a video aggregator that pulls in videos from sites like
YouTube and Metacafe. Clips are picked by users and approved by
moderators. There are no user profiles or playlists, making it a fairly
lightweight offering.

4. 5min: 5min
is a “videopedia” with a large amount of content. What we
like: it offers unique features like slow-motion and zooming,
especially useful for learning new skills.

5. Expert Village:
Expert Village is trying to win on volume, with thousands of videos
posted by experts. Currently, the site counts more than 1,700 experts
and some 17,000 videos.

6. ViewDo: similar to VideoJug, ViewDo provides tagging, comments, video embeds, and RSS feeds for each expert. The contributors are ranked based on their expertise.

7. Helpful Video:
With its minimalist interface, Helpful video is one of the few sites
where you actually have to pay for some clips. The concept is
interesting, but we doubt anyone will pay for your beginner’s
guide to karate: there are just too many free alternatives.

8. TeacherTube:
TeacherTube is YouTube for education, with courses for maths, data
processing and literature. The site is organized by
“channels” and “groups” (college, university,
sciences, technology, Maths…). Features include blog embeds,
favorites, tagging and commenting.

9. Vidipedia:
Vidipedia wants to be the Wikipedia of the videos. It provides info on
personalities, historical events and other content you’d expect
to find in an encyclopedia. You can leave comments, download or embed
videos elsewhere.

10. YouTube: Don’t forget YouTube itself: the YouTube category “How To and DIY
provides a massive number of how-to videos and inspiration for
projects. In fact, it could crush the others simply because of
YouTube’s massive userbase.