Videos on the internet are everywhere. Youtube is a great site to host them so that the videos can be seen and shared. However, it works best as a tool and not a channel. Funny or Die, on the other hand, is great as a hub for comedic videos on the internet.
Youtube has millions of great clips like the Mega Man rap below, but is cluttered with emo kids making videos of themselves being emo.
FOD has a dedicated focus, comedy, that allows all the videos to stay on message, which makes the comments much more relevant and engaging. It also has exclusive videos, often featuring celebrities. Almost everything on FOD has the potential to go viral, whereas Youtube has a very small percentage of unique content that's even worth watching.
Considering how useful Youtube is for creating popular videos, it is strange how little emphasis they put on sharing their videos. Under the video info, there are links to embed the clip and the URL. The links to directly share the videos are placed in a grey box below the video. Expanding the box brings up more bland links in a larger grey box. It is boring and allows the sharing feature to be easily overlooked.
FOD makes their buttons much more visible and exciting. First off, all the sharing tools are together, including the embedding, e-mailing, and social media tools. Plus, everything pops against the black background.
FOD is much newer, and it shows. Youtube should seriously invest in a make-over. Considering they are owned by Google, it is very odd that they would not fit with the rest of the family.
