Ziddio: Has Comcast One-Upped YouTube?

Launched a little over 3 months ago, the other day I finally stumbled across Comcast's version of YouTube: Ziddio. At first I was skeptical of the new video-sharing platform. I mean, YouTube was first and that should mean something right? This newcomer has got to be a spin-off, a wannabe, a copy-cat, whatever you want to call it...right? Wrong. Ziddio is the real deal folks, and it's got plenty of features YouTube doesn't.



First and foremost, contests. Ziddio encourages the creation of more purely user-generated content by offerring prizes ranging from money to things that are usually more unobtainable such as the chance to direct a pilot in Hollywood based on your idea, or for the more superficial crowd (or just the curious), the chance to date a model. And of course, always looming in the background of the realm of opportunity is the chance that you or your video might be featured on, gasp!, television.

That's right, Ziddio is the first video-sharing website that is crossing media. This takes "online" social networking to a whole new level. Perhaps television isn't too prehistoric for this Internet-savvy generation...it still sure does hold the fascination of the American public.

Still, I wonder if Ziddio will really act as competition to YouTube, or if it will simply evolve as its own entity alongside the video-sharing giant. What's surprising to me is Ziddio's lack of advertisements and interaction among users. I wonder if this is something that Comcast will develop over time, or if they plan to keep it more clean and less organic.

If you hadn't heard of Ziddio before, you soon will. Ziddio is hot! The reason? Its recently announced partnership with Facebook. More on that tomorrow.

To learn more about the launch of Ziddio, check out the article on Mashable, my new favorite blog that addresses all topics related to social networking.