Update: The folks at Blip Tv contacted me and corrected my statement that YouTube was the first company to allow bloggers to imbed third party video content on their own sites. Blip TV launched that feature one month before YouTube. My original post follows.
As far as I know, YouTube was the first video service to allow users to copy a bit of code and play videos on their own blog or website. It was a brilliant move and is a big reason Youtube has been so successful.
Lately, some of the video services have been innovating in terms of the features and functionality they are including in their embeddable video player. So following are my ranking of the embeddable video players for some of the major video sites, with the best listed first.
(1) Netscape Player
Best features by far. Allows you to easily grab the video for posting on your blog in different sizes and shows the number of votes and comments the video has attracted on Netscape. Two small gripes: it doesn’t work in Netvibes and I find the player design a little too colorful. For these embeddable video players I prefer extremely subtle designs that look good on every blog/website. Overall, a great job by Jason Calcanis and the Netscape team.
(2) Yahoo Player
Great looking player that allows you to search Yahoo Videos after the video finishes playing. Also gives you the ability to IM or Email the video. Problem is you have to use Yahoo IM or email to use those features. I use neither regularly, so unfortunately those features do me little good. I’m also not wild about the purple Yahoo! logo.
(3) Youtube
Only real feature is a share link that allows you to email the video to a friend on the YouTube site. This is my least favorite of the players in terms of looks. I prefer the previous version of the YouTube player. , although I prefer the previous version of the player which was a bit more subtle.
