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.
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