YouTube
Albino Blacksheep
Putfile
These are three video sharing sites that I have visited myself in the past.
First off is YouTube. It allows anyone to upload videos to the website with a simple username fill out or login. You can put whatever relevant tags you like onto your video in order for searchers to find your uploaded content. Then, all the videos your username uploads are put together on your user's personal page. With your login, you can favorite other videos you like on youtube and let them appear on your page. This is a way to network with other users that you like for their submitted videos. Like other social networking sites, you can "friend" other people you know. You can search the site and comment on what any youtube user uploads. Youtube has obviously been the most under fire with copyright infringements being the most popular and well known of video sharing websites. Viacom's scrub caused the most controversey, but mostly what needed to be removed was.
Putfile is also a video sharing site with a search engine. Compared to the other sites, this one had the most advertising. Putfile has been increasingly growing as a site. The layout has been changing to meet the growth. Putfile also requires a login to upload media. Also, both YouTube and Putfile let you sort videos not only in a search but by recently added, most popularly viewed and top rated both recently and all time. Unlike YouTube, Putfile also lets a user host photo albums through their site. If a user wants to host other types of files, the user is directed to use putstuff.com- a one-click webhosting site that does not require any kind of username.
Albino Blacksheep is a more selective video hosting site. There, members create all types of media for the website including flash animation, videos, games, and many other types of media. Once submitted, the moderators decide if they want to post the video by following their criteria. It has been named one of the top blog sites currently online. There also is a nice search engine to find media, but it is not as robust as the other search engines, as it is a simple google-powered search of the website.