De-Googling Yourself, Part 6

by Alessandro Ebersol (Agent Smith)

Last month, we paused this series of articles to address Richard Stallman's departure from the FSF presidency. Now let's get back to our subject, which is to introduce alternative services to Google's.

This month, we'll focus on YouTube, and what alternatives there are to this service.

YouTube, the once good video service...

Well, as I've criticized YouTube before, I won't write much about it here. Let's just punctuate the reasons that make it so bad. And, I repeat: It was good one day, but not anymore.

• Flawed copyright system that violates fair use most of the time.


• Worse, choppier and less customizable layout than before.


• Not respectful of its content creators.


• Automatically controlled by robots and not by real humans.


• Demonetization everywhere.


• Fake companies can claim your videos and get money from them without a problem.


• Videos that really violate YouTube community guidelines stay up to date most of the time (a video with extreme violence was on the trending page recently).


• Subscriptions and notifications don't work correctly.


• The PM feature is still there, even if it doesn't work properly.

So, after this brief introduction, let's check out what options exist for YouTube.

Vimeo is the best way to put your highest quality videos online, with great tools for sharing publicly or privately.

Plus, Vimeo's iPhone app lets you upload, edit, manage and watch your videos right from your iPhone.

Pros

Excellent video player. Good mobile apps. No ads. Great community. Creators can sell or rent their content via Vimeo On Demand.

Cons

Crowded web portal. More expensive storage price tiers. Some mobile upload limitations.

Vimeo is best suited for people who prioritize high quality content over trends. Short films, animation, informative pieces and in-depth journalism are all at home on Vimeo. The consistent quality of Vimeo's offerings is a breath of fresh air after navigating the sea of YouTube hit or miss content, although you're unlikely to find the latest viral videos on Vimeo. In short, Vimeo is similar to a private art gallery compared to the public YouTube experience. Of course, the former is more expensive and less frequented, but their jobs are usually of a higher quality.

Federated video streaming platform (ActivityPub) using P2P (BitTorrent) directly in web browser with WebTorrent and Angular.

PeerTube was in alpha and became beta in March, 2019. It is free, decentralized, shared, and instance-based software. In fact, everyone can create their own instance and share their content with content from other instances. This gives you complete freedom of speech, neutral service, much greater content diversity, and even the ability to pay videographers based on fairer and different models. But above all, offer a free alternative to GAFAMs (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon & Microsoft) and their model.

BitChute is a peer-to-peer video sharing platform. Its mission is to put people and freedom of speech first. It's free to participate, create and upload your own videos to share with others.

BitChute has a phenomenal community and incredible potential, but it currently has some serious disadvantages.

BitChute aims to become an uncensored protected YouTube, in part, including decentralized bit-torrent functionality. The BitChute site as a single Internet site will remain centralized until everyone can somehow be co-host, such as FreeNet or ZeroNet. This is a "decentralization" myth/failure/supervision shared with numerous other sites that claim to be free, such as Steemit, Gab, InfoGalactic, etc. Unfortunately, torrent magnets are not in all videos and unfortunately, from time to time, your video torrent remains un propagated or downloaded. This could easily be corrected if, in addition to YouTube-style playback, BitChute also propagates all your videos. When torrents are missing or seedless, you are forced to watch the videos on their website and/or use a flash browser downloader to save your file. In addition, naming options settings for video torrent magnets are absolutely necessary. Currently, you download a video file with a short video ID alphanumeric encoded name instead of a good title, including useful descriptors such as its source (BitChute), author/channel/publisher, filename/video/title, date, and other details such as short alphanumeric code, video resolution, audio compression, and/or duration.

If BitChute really wanted to be successful, in addition to fixing the torrent issues mentioned, they would open the source project, have a forum and/or wiki for developers and users, encourage mirrored host sites, incorporate a cryptographic currency and/or reward system (which is already underway), social networking integrations and I'm sure of countless other things that other people will want, or offer.

Tired of all the YouTube issues? Are you tired of robots reviewing your videos for offensive content instead of real people? Do you miss YouTube's old feel with personalization, a community, and a platform you could grow on? Well, if you answered yes to any of these questions, you'll love VidLii. VidLii provides a platform for users to upload videos freely, with guidelines that keep the environment user-friendly without preventing you from having a free voice. You can upload anything from social comments to satire. Explore the community, upload videos and show yourself. Join VidLii today if you just want a sense of nostalgia or want to be part of this amazing site as you grow. From a site user, not a team member, I can say that this site is amazing and has great potential to be known as the next YouTube.

Compared to YouTube, this is the best way. Google has removed features from YouTube for some time. VidLii is bringing back these features (such as annotations (coming soon!), Community Guide, video responses (we hope a few days after this review), channel 1.0, channel 2.0, channel banners (for partners only in August), star rating & Plus mobile channel newsletters & widgets

Dailymotion is a video sharing service site based in the 18th arrondissement, Paris, France, and is the world's largest video site after YouTube.

Dailymotion organizes web videos and displays them in a steady stream for viewing and enjoyment of sharing. You will appreciate its ease of use.

Pros

Limit the videos: Dailymotion organizes videos by genre, so you can filter videos quickly.

Follow your favorite: If you have a favorite video source, such as Buzzfeed can follow them after that, the source appears in the Next menu for easy access.

View your history: If you forgot to tag or add a specific video to a playlist, the History feature is useful for going back and browsing all previously viewed videos. You can also remove specific videos from history.

Cons

Login required: Dailymotion lets you watch all the videos you want without having to create an account or log in with your Facebook credentials. However, if you want to create a playlist or add a video to your favorites, you need to create an account first.

Verdict

Dailymotion is a well-designed application to keep you up to date on the latest and greatest videos on the web. Recommended.

D.Tube is the first decentralized encrypted video platform built on the STEEM Blockchain and peer-to-peer IPFS network.

The interface is identical to the current YouTube.

Pros and Cons
Pros:

• It's a YouTube-like platform that people are familiar with.


• Can create your own dTube channel.


• Very easy to use and upload videos.


• The percentage of votes is incorporated into all users.


• Thumbs up on each video for voting.


• Rewards displayed with $0.000 decimal places.


• You can hide all NSFW videos.

In DTube, there are no hidden algorithms that control the visibility or monetization of certain videos over others. All DTube data is public and can be reviewed by anyone with an internet connection.

Due to the decentralized nature of IPFS and the STEEM blockchain, DTube cannot censor videos or enforce guidelines. Only users can censor it, through the power of their positive and negative votes.

Cons:

• Features like subscribing to a channel are missing.


• Thumbs down is a little too visible.


• DTube adds "dtube-" in front of all your tags (you can edit it in steemit).


• Biggest complaint: It doesn't embed the video in steemit, but links dTube for viewing. Annoying.

Vlare.tv is a video sharing site created by Jan and Suduerion in an attempt to provide creators with an alternative to YouTube.

The site combines elements of modern YouTube and social media as it aims to increase interactions between creators and the people who follow their channels.

According to Plutonium Digital, Vlare would originally be a new build of VidLii. (as creator Jan also created ClipBits, VidBits and VidLii). But over time, it would evolve into a new site that aimed to be closer to the current YouTube.

When it was first announced, people interested in participating would need to sign up for VidLii, as well as request access to Alpha (via a direct, private message).

The site was launched on December 10, 2018 and has been in testing since September, 2018. The site would include non-YouTube features, including: Groups, Talking to Friends, Watching Videos Together, and Creating Blog Posts.

On April 24, 2019, Vlare's Twitter account announced that Vanillo Sudeurion's co-founder had joined Plutonium as a content creator and site developer, where he was assigned to design the site's user interface and improve the site to as it approached its public release.

In a screenshot of Discord, Jan said he will try to get Vlare to annotate its videos, a feature that YouTube removed in January 2017.

On May 7, 2019. Vlare came out of beta and was released to the general public.

LiveLeak is a London-based video sharing site. The site was founded on October 31, 2006, in part by the team responsible for the shocking website Ogrish.com, which was closed the same day.

LiveLeak aims to capture images of reality, politics, war and other world events and combine them with the power of citizen journalism. Hayden Hewitt of Manchester is the only public member of the LiveLeak founding team.

"YourSay" is a section of the site where users upload their own videos, like a vlog. Unlike YouTube, LiveLeak vlogs are more political and are known for debate.

LiveLeak currently has several categories, including Syria and Ukraine, where graphic content for various conflicts can be viewed.

Metacafe is a video sharing site specializing in short form video entertainment in the categories of movies, video games, sports, music and TV.

The company was headquartered in San Francisco, California, with an office in Los Angeles. Metacafe was acquired by Collective Digital Services in 2012 and at that time it ceased to exist as an independent company.

In its early years, Metacafe was similar to other video viewing sites such as YouTube or Dailymotion, but has since become a short-form video entertainment. The company's partners included content providers such as major movie studios, video game publishers, cable and broadcast networks, record labels and sports leagues.

The site is supported by advertising, working closely with brands in the entertainment, electronics, telecommunications, consumer packaged goods, food and beverage and automotive industries.

Metacafe used to attract more than 13 million unique monthly viewers in the US and broadcasts over 53 million videos in the US each month, according to comScore Video Metrix (March 2011). The overall audience of the site was over 40 million unique monthly viewers.

Last, but not least, there's Full30.

YouTube's recent restrictions on firearm content, which include bans on videos that link to the sale of guns and videos that teach viewers how to install attachments like high-capacity magazines, have already had dramatic effects on the online video community's hunters, sport shooters, and weapons enthusiasts. As those creators try to figure out if they will be able to have a future on the world's top video site, several other niche players are looking to fill the void. Full30, a site specifically dedicated to firearm content, has announced an expansion, while the Utah Gun Exchange, a retail platform, has positioned itself to enter the video industry as well.

The domain was registered in 2014, and, in 2015 it was launched to the public. The company behind Full30 invited content creators to join the site and reserve their channels, since they felt Youtube censorship would entice a mass exodus from the popular video site.

One of its most prominent users is Hickok45, who began sharing his videos there after running into trouble with YouTube back in 2016. As of this post, Hickok45 has about 30,000 subscribers on Full30. On YouTube, he has nearly 4.5 million subscribers and over 1,800 videos.

Regarding censorship, a spokesperson for Full30 stated: Full30.com does not censor its content creators in any way. Full30.com does not remove videos or add videos for its content creators, only the content creators can add or remove their videos.

I took a look at the video site (they have many sections: blog, articles, an online shop) and it is very complete and filled with information for gun enthusiasts. But, you won't find other genres there, since it is a site specialized in firearms (I was hoping to find some FPS games... Who knows? Deals with guns too, not real, but...)

Summary

Of these services, Vlare stands out, which, having been launched in 2019, is already starting to make a considerable legion of fans, with social aspects, respect for the creators and a more accessible platform than YouTube.

Stay with us for the next chapters in this series, where I'll write about Android and finally how to effectively circumvent Google's spying services.