Veoh? Vimeo is Real YouTube Competition

There's been some buzz this week about Veoh Networks, a start up that's positioned itself to compete with YouTube. In fact, former Disney chairman and chief executive and Michael Eisner is SO convinced that he put his own money into a recent $12.5 million second round of funding for Veoh.

Well, folks... Michael Eisner should have given his money to these guys: Vimeo.

Vimeo is a video sharing service that's very similar to YouTube. Vimeo has been around since November 2004, and was created by Connected Ventures, the same guys that started Busted Tees, CollegeHumor.com, and the Big Shocker!

Just a few days ago, they completely relaunched Vimeo, and it's looking REALLY good. From a features standpoint, it can hang right there with YouTube and the rest, allowing users to share, download and rate clips. It also looks 5,000 times better than Veoh... and even YouTube, for that matter.

The only thing I'm disappointed about? Vimeo has shot themselves in the foot by requiring people to sign up on the front end. This severely limits their potential as a portal where people go to browse videos. If they get rid of this sign up barrier, they could give YouTube a run for their money. I will credit them, though, that one of the interesting aspects they're using registration for is to create a more "social networking" type of video destination. Think MySpace for videos, sort of.

Check out Vimeo for yourself. You won't be disappointed (except maybe for the sign up thing).