For the past year, John Chow dot Com has used Vimeo as its default for embedded video. The main reason for doing this is Vimeo allows HD embedding while the other video services does not. I’m starting to see comments that say the Vimeo service runs very slow for some readers and they’ve asked me to switch to YouTube. I should note that all my videos are available on YouTube, I just choose to embed Vimeo on the blog because it’s in HD 720p by default. However, YouTube recently allowed viewers the ability to choose their resolution on videos embedded on a web page. The default is 320p but you can easily change it to 480p or 720p if the video was filmed in those resolutions.
From a marketing standpoint, it would be better to use YouTube as the default player. The video views racked up by Vimeo would go to YouTube and that will give the clip a much higher chance of being a YouTube featured video. The other advantage of switching to YouTube is it’s free. Vimeo cost $59.95 a year and they don’t allow commercial content.
What do you guys think? Should I switch to YouTube as the blog’s default video player or should I remain at Vimeo. Please vote and leave your comment. I’ve included a sample video from YouTube and Vimeo so you can see the difference in video quality.
[poll id="5"]
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Yes, please switch.
Maybe Vimeo hasn’t caught on yet, but many of your videos would be considered commercial in nature, especially when you review products. I know many affiliate marketers who have had their accounts suspended simply by talking about what they do for a living and not even trying to sell anything. Not to mention, if you read the small print, Vimeo doesn’t allow any videos to be embedded on a site that displays advertising. Yes, they are THAT picky!
By the way, YouTube now allows 1080p embeds as well, depending on the resolution you recorded in
Youtube video looks a little washed out but not noticeably. I like Vimeo because it hides the bottom bar while you’re viewing.
Definitely switch to YouTube. YouTube’s market share for videos is more than all other video services combined, so that already makes a case for it. Anyone searching for videos isn’t likely to check Vimeo before they check YouTube, so you’ll also get a search benefit.
Also, Google indexes YouTube videos when people search, so you’ll get another search benefit that way.
Vimeo used to kick ass for clarity of their vids, but the quality difference is negligible now.
I’ve had my videos deleted from Vimeo 3 times, despite not having any commercial content. Their community manager (who chooses whether you stay or go) is a bit of a jerk.
YouTube all the way John!
I say switch to YouTube. You’re more likely to get views on your videos because of the larger community. Plus, you could add revenue that way due to the partner program. I think it’d be better for you in the long run. YouTube also offers HD video now too.
Hey John… The vids that you show aren’t exactly needed in HD. I mean. ..if you were to stretch your vids then yeah maybe but there of a standard size and i’d rather have good speed than a good picture. A lot of your readers will have slow connection speeds to boot. Your a blogger not a picture house.
Do the right thing man.
I don’t watch anything that isn’t HD. Even on TV. If it isn’t HD, I don’t bother. There’s nothing worse than YouTube blurriness.
If you have a slow connection speed…get faster internet.
Either u stop watching the video or all of us do, because vimeo takes a few years to load.
I don’t need to watch the videos. I’m in them.
Get faster internet. I’m on relatively slow 6MB per second DSL and Vimeo still loads quickly. It never needs to stop to buffer (and looks so much better).
You guys are very blessed with broadband speed and cost. South Africa just sucks. My present download speeds seldom exceed 40kB/s. Watching any kind of streaming video is a stop-start story of note
I like vimeo, but you would probably get a lot more exposure if you used youtube.
Yes, switching to YouTube does sound like a reasonable thing to do.
I think you should stay with Vimeo, because I really think that the quality is better..
Yes quality wise there is no competition for Vimeo.
Well, I might be mistaken, but YouTube still has a 10 minute limitation… and also, if their systems detect you are using copyrighted music (any song), it mutes the whole video! (That happened to my wedding video uploaded there…). Do take that into consideration…
I would like to see you go back to YouTube or maybe even embed both in your blog so people can choose. I very often use my IPhone to view your blog while I am out, and I can not watch the Vimeo video’s because they require Flash.
Hi John,
If it were me… I would go ahead and switch to YouTube. I just read in the comments section of Matt Cutts most recent blog post that YouTube is moving to HTML 5 as well.
One other thing about YouTube is, they have market share… Everyone knows who they are… Your videos have a lot better chance of going viral on YouTube than Vimeo…
If you’re concerned about the quality of the video… don’t be… only 57% of US households have access to the Internet… We (as society) are still a ways away from having to have everything in HD…
The obvious decision to me is to switch to YouTube (you gave some great points of why in your post)… I’m just curious, why did you ask your audience about this?
i work with videos all the time. I used to use revver in the past and made 1000s dollars with them until they were bought out and they started to suck and then I started using vimeo an dyoutube.
Vimeo also has its shortfall. Takes long for videos to be converted unless you get their paid services.
In that aspect I find youtube superior and efficient. The most important thing is your content rather than the quality of the video. I m not saying the quality should be poor but the one you have here is fine.
I also won video site where I embed videos from both youtube and vimeo. One good thing about vimeo is that when you click on the player it doesn’t go to vimeo whereas when you click on the youtube player it takes you to youtube. It has both advantages and disadvantages….anyways I could go on and on. Actually i m planning to write on this issue on my blog as well.
Oh yes you can make money with youtube also. I have been making some…..
You should definitely switch to YouTube, its potential is huge.
I’ve done a small test once, I intentionally made a lousy video, uploaded it and didn’t promote it at all.
What I did is that I’ve just put all the tags other similar videos had, and all the search suggestions Youtube search engine box listed on the root keyword phrase.
The result was that even these days I get a small trickles of traffic to one of my blogs. And it took me only half an hour to record it. Can’t imagine what would happen if I decide to create more and more videos and promote them both on YouTube and the rest of the web.
Unfortunatly is true John. If you embed commercial videos, Vimeo could suspend your account. Switch to Youtube, is better for you!
I do like Vimeo for the reason that it allows all the features you said and also allows videos over ten minutes for YouTube partners. However, YouTube simply has more people, and I think that switching to YouTube as your default with there new features would be a smart move.
as for me, i suggest to not use the video at all. Yeah — it is because my internet is lack of bandwidth so i almost never play your video john.
Most definitely switch, Youtube is the future plus could lead to a lot more traffic to your site.
I really don’t see a problem with you using Vimeo. It’s been working fine for me.
I have downloaded your app in iTunes and iPhone’s default player is YouTube. It will be great if I can enjoy your blog posts with playable videos.
I liked the YouTube video better because I could not get it to skip or stutter no matter how many tabs or programs I opened during the playing of it. The Vimeo stuttered the minute I clicked the link to your site and it started to load.
Also, I 2nd the motion for YouTube for the iPhone because I too have your app and wrote a review BTW. Since YouTube is the default player it would be nice if you used it for that too.
I would say switch to youtube because you could get more views on the videos and they will gain more exposure.
Your post said it all!….YouTube should be your default video player….And it`s free!
My vote is with Youtube. I never used Vimeo before.
Should use Revver and get paid for it
like i mentioned above..revver is not good anymore..At least to me…I made $1000s of with them before…
YouTube is the way to go. Vimeo is really good too but they dont stand a chance.
switch to youtube john….
I have just noticed that recently. Youtube is a better choice
Do it!
On top of that, they have a partner program. If your videos get enough attention, they may invite you to join their program & you can make money off them.
Well, it looks pretty close but I actually think the YouTube video looks slightly less grainy and I have also experienced many times when a Vimeo video would not load fast enough for me and I am on a very fast connection.
I definitely vote YouTube, even though I use Viddler for all my Blog videos for the simple fact that I can make them longer than 10 minutes, but I also pay $100 a month…so…ya there’s that!
Nice post!
Both have been pretty good to me! Stay with the current!
Switch. Any service that charges and then dictates how you use it to the extreme extent Vimeo does doesn’t deserve your custom.
Weird, my comment got deleted. All I said was stick with Vimeo! I’ve enjoyed watching the movies with it so far!
No need to move over john, I feel vimeo looks cool.
Definitely make the switch..YouTube is so mucj easier to integrate especially with all the WP plugins available like TubePress
I don’t have a problem loading Vimeo vids but I think for over all feel you might as well go to Youtube.
It seems like YouTube holds the advantage for you right now. I’d make the switch to YouTube. If it doesn’t work out you can always go back to Vimeo.
I like the youtube video player better than the other one.
Personally I do not like Vimeo. The only reason why I use it to post videos longer than 10 minutes ( some of my dancing performance videos are longer than 10 minutes and I could not upload them through youtube ).
I’d go with youtube if I was you John.
Certainly Vimeo is the best option but if you want to reach many people than You tube will be must for you.
Oh,it is a great one…This video said everything…
i think vimeo so better from youtube
I personally like both Vimeo & Youtube. I think they both offer good things, having said that for mobile devices such as the iPhone I don’t think that you can beat YouTube. My vote for YouTube
Free + better marketing options = switch to Youtube!
There was a survey back a few months ago in which most people could not tell the difference between SD and HD.
We live in the era of cell phone videos being considered “good enough”.
Except for connoisseurs who spend $120 on HDMI Monster Cables, no one else really cares.
In fact, there was another survey in which most young people actually preferred MP3s to uncompressed CDs!
YouTube, without even thinking twice. It is the superior option on far too many levels, and best of all….it’s FREE!!!
Most people can’t tell the difference between 48Kbps and the same music encoded at 160Kbps:
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/digitalmusic/0,39029432,49303980,00.htm
People can’t tell the difference between lossless and compressed MP3 music:
http://www.trustedreviews.com/mp3/review/2009/11/18/Sounds-Good-To-Me/p1
Study shows people can’t tell the difference between SD and HD:
http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20091014/study-shows-people-difference-hd/
The point being that there’s no reason to hang on the Vimeo simply for HD. (There might be other reasons, though).
Without a doubt, Youtube. It’s free, and I can’ think of one reason why Vimeo would be better.
Gday John
Switch to YouTube please. When I visit your site whilst I am here at work (Ssshhh!), the Vimeo videos do not fkn load. It really gives me the shits.
Maybe its because the company I work for are stuck in the ice age and wont upgrade from IE6.
Most of us probably agree that you can have a great quality video without having to post it in 720p HD. I think the people downloading a video of a talking head are more concerned with audio quality than video quality. MHO Thanks.
Personally, I prefer the Vimeo Player to YouTube. However, Brian’s point about not being able to view Vimeo on an iPhone is worth bearing in mind – particularly if Apple’s tablet turns out to be a huge success.
What about Videopress? It costs about the same as Vimeo and looks pretty good.
YouTube. Seriously, Vimeo sucks, all your vimeo videos load so slow for me even though I have a 10Mbit connection.
I’d go with Youtube. It’s the giant of the video world and still more important than other competitors I think.
I cannot wait to get into more video blogging and video creation in the future. I cannot wait till I can afford some of the big gun digital cameras as well. It’s a hobby that I have never really properly pursued.
Why not..? youtube is also good for playing video
Gday John
Switch to YouTube please. When I visit your site whilst I am here at work (Ssshhh!), the Vimeo videos do not fkn load. It really gives me the shits.
Maybe its because the company I work for are stuck in the ice age and wont upgrade from IE6.