AOL & CNN: New video hosts

As a San Jose Mercury News blog quips, it seems the "Ratio of video-sharing sites to videos approaches 1:1." AOL and CNN are joining the ranks of the many, many video-hosting sites trying to attract all those homemade videos out there." AOL is revamping its video portal to better spotlight user-produced videos, YouTube-style, the Merc says. Then there's the just-unveiled CNN Exchange, "a hub for people to submit and share their news videos" called "I-Reports" (to be previewed by editors before they appear on the site). CNN Exchange is "powered by blip.tv," the site will allow amateur videographers to upload “I-Reports,” which will be reviewed by editors before being published to the site (here's CNET on the CNN development). Knowledge@Wharton says there are more than 225 of these YouTube-type sites, among them VideoEgg, Video Bomb, Blinkx.TV, Blip.TV, Guba, Grouper, Frozen Hippo, Blennus, and Eefoof. I'm hoping these myriad opportunities for kids to put themselves on display will soon hit the public consciousness as a safety issue, not just a copyright one (see this week's feature).