A
video hosting service allows individuals to
upload video clips to an
Internet website. The video host will then store the video on its server, and show the individual different types of code to allow others to view this video. The website, mainly used as the
video hosting website, is usually called the
video sharing website.
Because many users do not have unlimited web space, either as a paid service, or through an ISP offering, video hosting services are becoming increasingly popular, especially with the explosion in popularity of blogs, forums, and other interactive pages.
The mass market for camera phones has increased the supply of user-generated video. Traditional methods of personal video distribution, such as making a DVD to show to friends at home, are unsuited to the low resolution and high volume of camera phone clips. In contrast, current broadband Internet connections are well suited to serving the quality of video shot on mobile phones. Most people do not own web servers, and this has created demand for user-generated video content hosting, which the likes of YouTube are catering to.
A more recent application of the video hosting services is in the Mobile Web arena, where video and other mobile content can be delivered to, and easily accessed by mobile devices. While video-hosting services such as YouTube have developed means by which video can be watched on mobile devices, mobile-oriented web-based frontends for video hosting services that possess equal access and capability to desktop-oriented web services have yet to be developed.
