The story cited a new report from social media research consultancy Trendstream and research firm Lightspeed, giving stats such as:

• In one week in January, 97 million Americans viewed a streaming clip online – as many as are tuning into any major broadcast network
• With 72 per cent of U.S. web users watching clips online, web video outstrips both blogging and social networking, and is now the leading “social-media platform”
• With 49 million active Web users – 32 per cent – uploading content in January 2009, users of all ages now generate far more content than traditional broadcasters and collectively contribute the majority of video content to the web

Meanwhile the world’s most popular video-sharing site, YouTube had a 1,700 per cent jump in mobile video uploads over the past six months.

YouTube has shown phenomenal growth over the past few years. In mid-2007, six hours of video were uploaded to YouTube every minute. Now, 20 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. In fact, as I write this blog “uploaded youtube” is a trending topic on Twitter.

In my hometown of Yellowknife I have seen the growth of online video. Here are a few businesses that prominently feature online video. Let me know what I am missing:

• CBC North – runs its full Northbeat news show as well as numerous shorter news videos
• Kellett Communications – offers full gamut of filmmaking and effects, strives to make communication interactive, weave it in and out of all media, especially online content
• Up Here – this magazine about the north posts photos animated Ken Burn’s style with music/voice over track such as this recent soundslide, which is hosted on Up Here’s Vimeo channel

You can check out the Yellowknife tab on my Netvibes page to see other Yellowknife videos on YouTube.

Had an issue starting off with sound-video falling out of synch. But generally I was happy with the video quality and mused on Twitter/Facebook, “all good in Vimeo land now and quality is so much better than YouTube.”

This drew the attention of video intake producer for CBC Vancouver Charlie Cho, who replied, “But is Vimeo better than YouTube HQ? Not in this random case:”

You Tube Click HQ button

video vs.

Vimeo

I would say that’s a tough call, but I am giving a slight edge to Vimeo for the crispness of its edges. That is assuming that both these videos were uploaded at the same file size.

YouTube allows files of 1GB in size and 10 minutes long, so it’s a better deal than Vimeo for a free account. Vimeo does not have a maximum file size for uploads, but having a 500MB max per week means the maximum file size is really 500MB. I was unable to find any ‘upgrade to pro’ feature for YouTube, let me know if you hear anything about that feature (or lack thereof).

Still, YouTube is tops in terms of users, and on this side-by-side comparison for video sharing sites.

I will continue to post to both YouTube and Vimeo for now … until the next best thing comes along. What is your preferred site for video?